Player Issues
by KirikoAsakura
Summary: Sort of a hack/GU sitcom, Haseo/Atoli humor. Multichapter. Chapter 14! Ryou is concerned about learning some unsettling news about his past, which only becomes compounded when Atoli begins avoiding him in The World.
1. Login001: Third Party Opinions

_A/N: Hello and welcome to _Player Issues_! This is a collaboration work between my father and I, yes, my dad likes .hack. :) He will often be referred to in these notes and henceforth will be known as "Dad". Some chapters have an author's note like this one explaining approximately where in the game trilogy they are located. If they don't, it usually means either you're still reading the same plot segment or you've reached the post-game chapters (and even some of those have notes). This story will contain spoilers, for both the games and the show, so my best recommendation would be to have completed both so you can enjoy the full experience. (SPOILERS!) This is supposed to take place after the Holy Palace semi-finals but before Alkaid is attacked._

_Rating: T for violence, mild language, some mild sex-related humor (including shonen/shoujo-ai), brief implied nudity, and use of alcohol_

_Legal Stuffs: I do not own _.hack/G.U._ or any other work referenced in this story. This is a fan fiction and used entirely for fan purposes. I am not trying to make any financial gain from this; I just want to share my weird ideas with my fellow fans! :)_

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Login001: Third Party Opinions 

Misaki Ryou, the player behind the PC Haseo, sat at his desk at school, half asleep I might add, waiting for homeroom to start. He was wearing a navy blue business suit that was required by the private school's uniform dress code, but he did not wear the required tie, the jacket was unbuttoned as were the first two buttons of his white dress shirt. The next desk over, a few of his classmates were talking about The World.

"So," Sato started up. He was a tall, bright eyed boy with neatly combed ebony hair and wearing the full required uniform properly, the tie was a dark crimson. He leaned back in his chair. "Have any of you been watching the Arena Tournaments lately?**"**

Ryou's chocolate brown hair brushed away from his eyes revealing their deep auburn color. He turned his head to better hear the conversation. He turned his attention towards Ken, who slumped back at Sato's question. Ken was a dark boy, his dark red hair covering most of his face and wearing his uniform in a similar fashion to Ryou, except his dress shirt was black and fully buttoned.

"Yeah, and man!" Ken snapped; he closed his cell phone after finishing the game he'd been playing on it. "That Haseo guy is really pissing me off! Did he _really_ quit being a PKK just to beat up everybody in the _Arena_?"

Ryou was caught off balance at the sudden mention of his PC's name and nearly fell off his chair. He scrambled to get back into his chair sitting upright, hoping to not catch the attention of the others. Next spoke a trendy girl named Fusao.

She wore the girls' uniform properly with a white short-sleeve blouse, red bow tie and navy blue pleated miniskirt. One could tell her long, curly, barely-black hair, being twirled between her fingers, had been bleached numerous times. "I think he's cute! And his fighting style is awesome!"

Ryou turned in the opposite direction to hide his flushed cheeks.

"Yeah," Sato answered. "I agree on his fighting style. I mean I know he has a lot of experience fighting other PC's, they say he killed over a hundred PKers at once, but Arena battles are totally different from PKing and PKKing. It's amazing that he won the Demon Palace Tournament on his first try!"

"What was that attack he used?" Miwa asked. She was a plain-looking girl with her hair styled in a bob, wore glasses and the same uniform as Fusao, but also with a blazer jacket matching the skirt. She looked up from a notebook she had been writing in. "Endrance always used the same attack..."

"But then again..." Fusao didn't seem like she was really paying any attention to what Miwa said. "He's beaten so many other cute, strong guys! Like Endrance... and Kuhn..."

Meanwhile, Ryou had finally gotten himself adjusted upright and began banging his head lightly on the desk from Fusao's last statement. Sato spoke up again, "Speaking of Endrance, CC Corp. still hasn't come up with a decent explanation for what happened during the title match... I don't buy that 'server problems' excuse. And no one's heard from him either..."

Since he last spoke up until now, Ken seemed to not have been really paying any attention to the conversation at hand and now stood, slamming his hands on the desk. "He defeated my beloved _Pi_! And by a stupid _forfeit_ too! What was Kuhn _thinking_?"

'_When does class start...?' _Ryou thought leaning back in his chair. He turned his head to look at the clock in the back of the classroom and checked to see if his watch was synchronized.

"I heard the two of them are friends... Maybe it was something personal?" Sato mused.

Fusao smiled, "That seems to be the popular opinion; they were acting familiar during the fight."

Ryou used his hand to cover his face, _'I can't __believe__ I'm hearing this conversation...'_

"Here's a question," Miwa smirked. "Anyone else notice how both of Haseo's teammates in the Holy Palace Tournament are _girls_?"

'_Find a happy place. Find a happy place...' _Ryou began shaking his head in his hand.

"Yeah..." Ken drew out his response as if he were just realizing this. "He's with Alkaid the former Demon Palace Emperor and that Atoli girl from Moon Tree. And now that you mention it, Atoli was with him in the Demon Palace Tournament, too..."

"I think they're a couple," Miwa giggled. "He's really stubborn, but you can tell there's some _definite_ chemistry there. I saw their first match in the Ranking Colliseo; she hugged him after they won."

Ryou began coughing like he was choking on something. Sato glanced over and raised his eyebrow; shrugging it off, he turned back to the others. "You're imagining things… He seems to not be able to stand her. And I saw a recording of the same match on someone's personal site; he shoved her away."

"Yeah!" Miwa scoffed. "After about ten seconds!"

"Initial shock. That's five seconds alone."

"Even so, standard hug is only about two seconds, how do you account for the extra three seconds?"

"You're exaggerating."

"Why would he hang out with her all the time, then?" Fusao asked pointedly. Ryou was still coughing and stood to get out of hearing range till class started.

"Hey, Ryochii!" Fusao waved to get his attention. "You play The World too, don't you? Have you been watching the Arena lately?"

"Eh, kinda..." Ryou coughed out as he tried to hide his nervousness. He added under his breath, "'Ryochii'...?"

"'Kinda'?" Miwa raised her eyebrow. "Does that mean you're catching it when you can?"

"...I'm, well, I'm participating." He stammered, sitting back down on his desk.

"You mean you _were _participating," Sato pointed out. "The finals are up next." Ryou pulled back, feeling he shouldn't have said what he did.

"Maybe he's on one of the finalist teams...?" Miwa said, half joking.

"Can we talk about something else?"

Ken began deducing the options, "Well, you don't seem like the type to play a girl... So that knocks off Alkaid, Atoli and Bordeaux..."

"Do I _look_ like someone who'd play a girl as _sensitive_ as _Atoli_ even if I _did_ play girls?" Ryou exploded, no longer interested in hiding his red face. "And like _hell_ I'd ever be a PK!"

"Well, _that _knocks off Grein and Negimaru..." Sato rolled his eyes.

"Wouldn't it be funny if he's Haseo and we've just been _casually_ talking about him this entire time?" Fusao giggled. "His nervousness at the mention of Atoli's name and the blatant hatred for PKers certainly fits his profi..."

Ryou shot a glare at Fusao to portray the message of saying "Bingo!" The other four stopped and stared at him in shock.

"You... You can't be...?" Fusao blushed.

"Yeah...!"

"Yeah right!" Sato laughed sarcastically. "You're Haseo? 'The Terror of _Death_'? The undefeated black Adept Rogue who swept through the _Demon _Palace Tournament on his first try and is now aiming to win the _Holy _Palace Crown? C'mon! That guy's totally insane and you're, like, one of the quietest guys in our class!"

"What do you mean 'insane'?" Ryou glared.

"Actually," Miwa chimed in. "I have heard from a few people who have talked to him, that in normal conversation, the guy actually is pretty quiet. Almost shy... Some would even say 'rude'. But still, the chances...!"

"I always pictured him to be some forty-year old virgin outdoor introvert living in his mother's basement," Ken commented distantly.

"Forty-year old _virgin_? I live alone in an _apartment_!"

Ken ignored Ryou, "...The guy plays so much and is far stronger than most Adept Rogues, he's gotta spend a lot of money on his PC. I figure he would make more than a high school student's part-time salary..."

"Actually," Miwa spoke up. "Isn't your father some big-shot business tycoon? His parents probably pay his bills for him..."

"Well, yeah, he is..." Ryou answered uncomfortably. "But they don't pay my gaming bills; they don't even know I play The World."

"Well, if you really were Haseo, wouldn't you be able to furbish some sort of proof of this?" Miwa asked.

Ryou opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly pulled back, _'Wait... Do I really want to tell them who I am? I mean this could end badly... On the one hand I could end up never having a moment's peace. On the other, if they don't even care, it could be a serious blow to my ego.'_

Ken stood and snapped his fingers in Ryou's face to get his attention, "Hello? We're waiting...?"

'_Eh, what the hell. You never know unless you try, and anyways I've gotten too deep into this conversation, my only choices are to tell them the truth or tell them I was pulling their legs.'_ He rolled his eyes, annoyed and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "Here, I'll pull up an e-mail I've received from CC Corp."

The other four gathered around him as he pulled up a tournament notice, "How do we know it isn't just some hack or goof up by CC Corp.?" Ken asked.

"Okay, first of all, when would I have had _time _to hack this? You were all _watching _me!" Ryou exclaimed and closed his phone. "And that's beside the fact that I don't even _know _how to hack! And second of all..."

"You could have hacked it ahead of time..."

"That doesn't even make sense! Why would I hack something like that _ahead-_" Ryou stopped shortly, his phone began to vibrate. "Huh?" He opened his phone again, it was mail. While he read it, his expression began to soften. "Oh, I forgot I sent that to her... Here we go here's the email I just received!"

The other students gathered around the phone to look at the message…

_Sender: Atoli  
Subject: Re: How are you?_

_I'm doing fine, thanks! :)  
Take care of yourself too,_  
_Haseo-san._

_Sincerely,  
Atoli_

"His name's in the mail..." Fusao said, pointing at the screen.

"That could be hacked too," Ken argued.

Ryou rolled his eyes, "Gawd!"

"Ken-kun, think about it," Sato injected. "We watched him receive it, if it was a fake, he would've had to plan it out... And _we_ dragged _him_ into this conversation...!"

"And that's aside from the fact that this mail is a reply." Miwa added pointing at the subject; her lips curled into a sly grin as she slid her finger down to the sender line. "Hey! And notice who the sender is!"

"The 'reference' tag can be easily typed in... He could have sent it when we weren't looking. " Everyone else ignored Ken. Ryou double-checked the sender line of the e-mail; upon seeing it labeled "Atoli", his face turned bright red.

"Do you send Greeting Cards to her often?" Miwa asked coyly. Ryou closed the phone and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Well, I'm still not buying this," Ken proclaimed. "...Hey. How about this? We'll give you our PC names and we can meet somewhere. We'll give you a phrase to say to prove who you are."

"...Whatever." Ryou glared. "Fine, give me the phrase."


	2. Login002: Rumors & Member Addresses

_A/N: This is supposed to be after the Holy Palace Finals. _

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Login002: Member Addresses & Rumors

Later that day, Ryou logged into The World and Haseo warped into Mac Anu's ever-busy Dome. He breathed out an aggravated sigh and turned to the Chaos Gate. '_I can't believe I'm actually doing this!' _he muttered. He accessed the Chaos Gate and warped out again to an area and made his way to the Beast Temple. There he found four players standing near the Beast's Statue. One was a Human child Shadow Warlock with the little witch's costume in purple with full waist length red hair. He focused on her, her name was 3ndora. _'...Who? That was Miwa-san, right?'_

Next to her stood a female canine Lei Tribe Blade Brandier with blond fur and wearing blue-colored light armor, her name was Satomi. _'Satomi? That's Sato-san… No doubt.' _Looking at the scenery with her back sort of turned to him was a girl about his age with short pink hair, dark skin and silver and pink light armor. She was an Edge Punisher.

_-(Flashback!)-_

"My character's name is Pricked Rose! One word." Fusao smiled.

"Pricked Rose?" Ryou cocked his eyebrow.

"She's supposed to be modeled after my idol, Black Rose of the dot hackers. And I wanted to _model_ her, not take her identity, so I just used the 'Rose' part."

"O-okay..."

"And another thing! Call me 'Fusao-chan' from now on."

Ryou blushed, "Whaa...?"

_-(End Flashback...)-_

'_So, that's Fusao-sa... chan.'_ Ryou thought, looking at PrickedRose. He turned to the last person in the room._ 'So that must be Ken-san...'_ The last person there was a black and tan male adult Human Harvest Cleric named Ruchba. The four turned to him when he stepped closer.

"Hey there." He waved, rolling his eyes. _'I can't believe I'm saying this...' _"Sakamoto-sensei gives us extra homework to compensate for the fact that he's hiding in the closet."

Ruchba fell to his knees, laughing, "Oh my gawd! I can't believe I actually got him to say that! LMAO!"

PrickedRose stood in place, star-struck; Satomi was just shocked. "It-It really is you...! Congratulations on the finals, by they way!" she said. It was evident Sato was using the voice changer feature because the PC's voice was very feminine.

Haseo scratched back of his head and folded his arms, trying not to look embarrassed, "...Thanks."

"See?" 3ndora chirped. "I had a feeling all along he was telling us the truth!"

Ruchba jumped forward and clasped Haseo's right hand in both of his own, "Can you give me Pi's Member Address? I take back everything I said about you defeating her now that I've seen how gallantly you two fought side-by-side!"

Haseo leaned away from Ruchba, looking nervous, "Whoa! Back away!" He screamed, pushing him away. "Look, if I gave some random guy in my class her _Member _Address, she'd search my _IP _Address, trace it to my _home_ address, sneak into my bedroom one night and kick my _ass_ out the _window_!"

"Could I watch? :D" Ruchba grinned.

"No!" Haseo growled out.

"Heh," Satomi smirked. "Is 'The Terror of Death' really scared of a girl kicking his ass?"

"I'm not scared! And you don't know her like I do..."

"Still the same that fight was amazing!" PrickedRose exclaimed, hearts popping out of her head. "You and Pi fought gracefully against all odds, and then Endrance-sama swept in to save the day...! ...Was that scripted?"

"Ehh... No," Haseo sweat-dropped.

"What was going on with Bordeaux, though? I've never seen that character mod before..." 3ndora sounded suspicious, making Haseo nervous, but she brushed it off. "Maybe she just won some one-chance special on a temp..." Haseo turned to her then looked away.

"Anyway..." PrickedRose and 3ndora surrounded Haseo.

"Could we have Endrance-sama's Member Address? And Kuhnni's?" both said together.

'..._Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.' _"Endrance, um, I'm not sure you to tell you girls this, but... I think he's gay. That or he's being played by one very perverse straight girl, either way he's not going to go for you..."

"No!" 3ndora screamed. "He is not gay! I refuse to believe that!"

"Believe it. And Kuhn..." he said flatly, folding his arms. "To be honest I'm surprised you don't _already_ have his..."

PrickedRose's cheeks were flushed, she seemed unable to decide whether to touch Haseo's arm or if she was too scared to. "Could I... have _your_ Member Address?" she asked.

He blushed and looked down at her; she was probably barely taller than Alkaid, "Why would you want _mine_?"

"Maybe we could go on a quest together sometime?" she smiled.

He turned away, "... I'll think about it..."

"Yay!" She jumped up and giggled giddily.

"It'll be 'no' if you keep acting like _that_!" he screamed, his face turned a deeper shade of crimson.

"Told you he was shy!" 3ndora beamed triumphantly.

"Okay. Forget these idiots..." Satomi brushed the others off and turned to Haseo. "I'm more interested in those _rumors_ about you! Is it really true you killed a hundred PKs in one _setting_?"

"...Yeah. I guess I pissed a few too many PKers off... Somebody arranged for a bunch of them to band together, dress up in the costumes TaN's secret service always used to wear, and lure me to a specific are area so they could jump me at once. The plan backfired on them a little..."

The others shuddered and Satomi took a step back from Haseo.

"He... He responded to that so calmly..." Ruchba stammered, Ken on the other side of the screen was now regretting having picked on Ryou for saying he was Haseo.

"O-okay..." Satomi continued. "It's pretty obvious that the rumor of you being a Vagrant AI that gives out mass amounts of Chim Spheres or rare items is a total lie..."

"Ya _think_?" Haseo snapped.

"Okay... Um..." she jumped back.

"What's with that 'Tri-Edge' you're always trying to find?" PrickedRose asked. "I read the Rumor boards, but I have no clue what they're talking about..."

"..." Haseo clenched his jaw.

"'Tri-Edge' is an AI some people believe they've seen that can cause you to go into a coma if he attacks you," 3ndora answered.

"I knew that much, but what _is _he?"

"Nobody's quite sure, but the popular belief is that he's a Vagrant AI that's gone berserk. Supposedly he looks like a zombie version of that Twin Blade that was involved in the Second Network Crisis seven years ago."

"Can we _move_ on to another subject _please_? Or I'm _leaving_!" Haseo yelled.

"...Oh! I know! I got one!" 3ndora turned to Haseo. "That girl you were said to hang out with six months ago..."

"Okay, that's it! I _am _leaving!" Haseo stormed off, face red, but she chased after him.

"Hey! Wait! Which is true? Was she 'with' you, or the leader of the Twilight Brigade? ...What was his name again?"

Haseo approached the Platform, "...Ovan."

"Right. Ovan. Eccentric man. Strange, modified arm. Looks like Harry Potter. So who was she with, you or Ovan?" She asked again; Haseo ignored her and warped out.

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_A/N: Nickname of "Harry Potter" for Ovan credited to Dad._


	3. Login003: Online Jack Special

_A/N: (SPOILERS!) This is supposed to be an off-shoot of the News Capture Articles, "The 2 Division Title Emperor" and "Online Jack Suspends Transmission", supposing that sometime after the press conference where that NEAR-enter Inc. announced they would no longer produce 'Online Jack' an anonymous e-mail was sent to Aihara with Haseo's offline information. So he saw it as an opportunity to bring the show back by doing a story on something positive about The World. _

_This was supposedly recorded somewhere between Vol. 2 & 3, after Aihara's gotten out of the hospital and was aired shortly after Phase 7 of the Doll Syndrome Investigation and the posting of the second mentioned article, at the beginning of Vol. 3._

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Login003: Online Jack Special

"Hello folks! I'm Aihara Salvador and this is Online Jack!" Outside the front gate of a private high school, Salvador stood in front of the gate gesturing to the inside. "I'm here today at the location of Kxxx Private High School. According to my sources, Misaki Ryou, who plays the Player Character known as 'Haseo' on the popular online game 'The World' attends." Salvador turned to the gate behind him; Miwa and Fusao walked out of the gate, leaving for the day.

"Samba, samba!" He exclaimed, checking the girls out. "What would you two say to a date with me, Aihara Salvador!"

"What a geek!" Miwa giggled.

"Wait! Isn't that the guy from that online news show?" Fusao asked. "Wasn't that show canceled? What is he doing here with a camera crew then?"

"Who cares!" Miwa scoffed. "A guy can't expect to just walk up to a girl and ask her on a date! Especially since he's an _adult _and we're _minors_!" They walked off and the scene changed to one of the hallways of the school. Salvador spoke to the camera again.

"I am outside the classroom of Misaki Ryou and he is about to leave for the day."

Ryou walked out of the classroom, wearing the same uniform as before, carrying a briefcase-style backpack by the top handle and hanging it over his shoulder.

"Misaki Ryou, I presume?" he asked, approaching Ryou.

"What's it to _you_?" Ryou snapped, glaring at Salvador.

"Is it true that you play the famous PC that has won the championship of two division Arena titles in the online game 'The World' known as 'Haseo'?"

"Uh...!" Ryou looked at the camera with a shocked expression on his face. He brushed it off and his face slid back into a glare; he turned back to Salvador. "I have nothing to say to you."

"Oh, come on! You can tell me!"

Ryou slid one of the shoulder straps to his backpack onto his shoulder and folded his arms, "You think I'm an _idiot_? I _know_ who you are; you're that Aihara _Salvador_ guy. I don't understand why your show was so popular; you _suck_ at undercover investigative reporting. I mean..." He pointed at the camera on Salvador's head. "What the _hell_? You call that a '_hidden_' camera? Any _moron_ with eyes could see you're _wearing_ it and that it's _recording_!" He turned to point at the cameraman with his thumb, still looking at Salvador. "And that's beside the fact you also have a _cameraman_..."

"But I'm sure your fans want to know all about you!"

"Not interested. Besides, what does what I do at home on my computer have to do with _investigative reporting_? Why don't you get back to what that bastard _Sakaki_ had to do with _Doll_ Syndrome? I was _actually_ interested in that..." He walked off.

"Wait! Are you somehow related to the events involving Sakaki? You... seem to have a definite opinion of him..."

Ryou ignored Salvador, walking without turning around and waving his hand. "I said, 'no comment'." Other students in the hallway turned to him and began whispering amongst themselves.

XXX

Later that day towards sunset at Ryou's apartment complex, it was a plaster building of six two-story apartment units. Salvador was standing in front of the front most apartment unit in much of the same fashion as he had been with the school.

"Second chance! I'm at the location of Ryou-kun's home. Let's knock at the door!" Salvador held his thumb up at the camera to indicate the okay and turned to knock on the door. Before he could, Ryou opened the door. He was now wearing a red woven shirt half unbuttoned, a black t-shirt could be seen underneath; he was also wearing a pair of blue jeans. In his arm was a yellow bucket with bathing necessities in it.

"Uh! It's _you_...!" he exclaimed.

"Ryou-kun!" Salvador grinned. "So how did you come to start playing The World?"

Ryou tried to ignore Salvador, double-checking to make sure that his door was locked, "Look. I already told you, I'm not saying anything! And don't address me like you know me!"

"But the people have a right to know!"

Ryou turned to Salvador and brought his face right into his, Salvador's cheeks flushed. Ryou grinned and grabbed the camera off Salvador's head and threw it out into the street. Salvador rushed out to grab his camera but stopped short when a garbage truck ran over it.

"My camera!"

"Next time it'll be your _face_! Quit _stalking_ me!" He walked off, making a point to kick pieces of the camera as he passed by it.

XXX

Outside a public bathhouse, Salvador was standing at the entrance holding a yellow bucket similar to the one Ryou had been holding before and mysteriously had his camera back in perfect condition.

"We are here outside the local public bathhouse where we believe Misaki Ryou attends regularly to bathe. Let's take a look."

Inside the men's changing room the men were, you know, changing. Everyone seemed to be conveniently covered somehow except for a couple of three year-olds who were running around, but you still couldn't see anything. Salvador approached Ryou, who was in the process of pulling his t-shirt off.

"Ryou-kun!" he smiled brightly as the boy was pulling the shirt off of his arms; he stopped to look around to see whom it was that was calling him.

"Grr! You...!" Ryou jumped to his feet, growling and threw his now crumpled t-shirt to the floor. "Bastard! I'll file a restraining order against you!"

"Just answer a few questions and this'll all be over. Now, is there anything you like to share with your-!"

Salvador's speech was cut short, Ryou had side kicked him in the face, knocking him into some lockers behind him. "Ow..." He rubbed his face, trying to get up. "You're a hard kick, boy..."

"I _told_ you next time it would be your _face_! Didn't you _bother_ to read up on me at _all_? I'm _not_ much different from my _PC_! When I make I _threat_, I do _good_ on it! See you in court!"

The cameraman turned off his camera and Salvador reached up to his headset to turn it off. Ryou sat back down on the bench he had been sitting on to change before and folded his arms.

"Okay, I just said that for effect. While I probably could talk my parents into letting me use their lawyers, I really don't want to waste my time on something like a court order. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the media would probably find out about it and have a field day with it, pretty much rendering itself useless... But I will say this: 'Nurse Carnival'." He grinned, looking pretty satisfied with himself. "Nice Password. Don't know what it's for, but..."

Salvador was able stand at this point, but was still rubbing his neck and lower back, "What...? Where did you get that password?"

"You really should be careful about who you talk to on the Net." Ryou grinned, shoving his face into Salvador's once again for emphasis. After a few seconds, he pulled back, shrugged and smirked. "Maybe everyone on the forums would like to know that Kazubolo, The World's 'last hope', is really Aihara Salvador."

"You? When I looked at that e-mail I thought I recognized your PC... You're that guy from the other day that I kept running into when I was logging in from the hospital!"

Ryou held his pointer finger up, "Bingo! Now here's the deal. You've probably already recorded enough material to do _something_, so I might as well let you have your interview. But, it has to be another day in another place, I'm not doing an interview in a mens' public bath changing room. Now, I don't want anyone knowing every detail of my life, its bad enough you've already revealed where I live, attend school and _bathe_, so... You can ask any questions you want, but I may not answer them. If you press me to answer any questions I'm uncomfortable with, I'll let everyone know about your secret identity. Agreed?"

Salvador pulled back reluctantly,"...Agreed."

XXX

A few days later at a hospital, Salvador sat in a chair in one of the waiting rooms, facing an empty one. Ryou plopped into the empty seat, was now wearing a light blue t-shirt, white dress shirt and jeans.

"Okay let's get this over with..." Ryou said bluntly.

"Why did you begin playing 'The World'?"

"A friend of mine said it was fun. It was only after I logged in and got PKed that someone pointed out they may have been referring to Revision One... I asked the friend later..." His pupils narrowed. "Turned out that's what he meant..."

"You said you got PKed, is that what made you become a Player Killer-Killer? Or was there some other reason?"

"...That's personal."

"What made you quit being a PKK? When did you quit?"

"That's also personal." Ryou paused to think. "...I guess it was, maybe a week or so before entering the Arena."

"Do you plan to enter the third Arena Tournament, 'Sage Palace'?"

"I don't exactly have any future plans... That's enough questions. Bye." Ryou stood to leave, but Salvador stopped him.

"One last question, please. It seems with your dual championship you've acquired quite a few lady fans, so tell us. What do you look for in a girl?"

Ryou had begun to sit back down but shot straight back up and turned red,"! Now I'm _really_ leaving! Bye!"


	4. Login004: Little Secret

_A/N: For those who are wondering, the picture referred to in this chapter is the Vol. 3 Apkallu wallpaper titled 'Wait a minute!' (SPOILERS!) This takes place after Sakaki has taken over the Serpent of Lore and before the Sage Palace Tournament._

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Login004: Little Secret 

"I've never really visited this section before..." Ryou said, eying the link to enter the Apkallu forum. "The idea of looking at pictures people drew of their PCs doesn't really appeal to me, but... I'm kind of bored... And who knows, maybe I'll find something interesting."

He scrolled through the topics, and just as he suspected, most of it really did not appeal to him. Although he was intrigued by this one thread where a girl named Mayako (1/2) talked about "a man in red and black" who saved her from PKers once; and slightly disturbed by another where someone drew him as a chibi feline furry, "What the hell...? I look like a mascot for some girl's anime...! Except for the 'demon' armor."

But then a new one popped up that caught his eye...

"'A new look', for what?" He opened the thread; the picture had a soft pink background, which made him cringe a little, but that was not really what caught his attention, what did was that in the foreground was a cutesy drawing (with _sparkles_ even!) of an all too familiar green and blonde Harvest Cleric.

"A-Atoli?" Flushed as he was, he noticed that the picture did not end there; in the background chasing the small Atoli figure was another altogether too familiar figure...

"Argghhh! What the _hell_?" He threw his controller up into the air and pushed back in his chair causing the chair to roll back and tumble over, throwing him to the floor with his controller a few feet away.

"Why the hell am _I_ chasing her? I'm grinning like an _idiot_! And what's with that damn _sparkle_ next to my _mouth_? Like I would _ever _do _anything_ like that!" He sat on the floor, breathing heavily, red faced and staring at his computer screen for a few minutes. After a while, he slowly stood back up, picking his controller off the floor, and walked slowly up to the computer. He looked around the room as if he was making sure no one was around (who he was looking for, I never quite understood...) He clicked on the picture.

_**Screen reads: Downloaded wallpaper!**_

His cheeks flushed deeper, "This'll just be our little secret...!" he whispered to the computer. Just before returning to forum's main page, his eye wandered to a response that had already been written. "'I want _in_ on that'? What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?"

He poised his hands over the keyboard, but stopped suddenly and pulled away, "Must. Resist. Urge to write angry response. Nobody must know I was even _on_ this forum. Let alone having looked at _this_ thread."

Meanwhile, Kusaka Chigusa, the player behind Atoli, was also at her computer checking the Apkallu forum; she was a petite girl about the same size as her character with long, honey brown hair and warm brown eyes. She was wearing a light blue tank top and white pleated skirt that appeared to be from her school uniform.

"Let's see what's new in the art forum!" She smiled, opening the page. She brushed a few strands of her hair behind her ear with her fingers while she browsed the topics. "'A new look' huh? Maybe someone drew an altered appearance of their character to..."

When her eyes laid on the picture, her face turned bright red and she dropped the controller, pulling hands to her chin, "Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Chigusa-chan!" Her mother yelled, it sounded distant, as if she were standing at the bottom of a staircase. "What was that noise?"

Chigusa could hardly contain the red color of her face, partly from the shock of the drawing in front of her, partly from the embarrassment of attracting her mother's attention. "S-sorry, Mother-! A-a piece of dust just rolled by my desk and I thought it was a spider."

"Really... Imprudent girl," Her mother could be mumbling loudly; her voice getting softer as she walked away from the stairs. "Screaming her lungs out over something so silly..."

Chigusa tried to ignore her mother and turned her attention back at the thread and the picture in front of her, "Th-that's me! A-and Haseo-san..."

She sat in her chair for a few minutes, just blushing and staring at the picture, "...Well, it _is_ a nice picture," She picked the controller off her lap and clicked on the picture.

_**Screen reads: Downloaded wallpaper!**_

"A-and, it's not like he'll ever know I downloaded it, so h-he can't yell at me." Her previously red face turned pink. "It'll just be my little secret..."

_-(Later that day...)-_

_Sender: Kuhn  
To: Haseo  
Subject: Let's hang out_

_Hey, Haseo, why don't you and I just hang out for today? Meet me at Breg Epona's Chaos Gate; we're going to:  
(Sigma) Calm Ocean's Magnified_

_See you there!_

"Why would Kuhn be calling me just to hang out?" Ryou raised his eyebrow, looking suspicious. "Whatever. I have nothing else to do, I might as well go... (Sigma) Calm Ocean's Magnified, huh?" He closed his Mailer, showing that he had now set the picture he found on the Apkallu forum as his wallpaper. He blushed while he stared at it for a few seconds.

"Gawd! Why did I download that thing anyway? I hope Atoli's not on; I'm not sure how I would react if we ran into each other." He paused as his pupils narrowed. "And that girl likes to stalk me, so if she's on, she'll find me..."

_-(Meanwhile...)-_

_Sender: Kuhn  
To: Atoli  
Subject: Let's hang out_

_Hey, Atoli, why don't you and I just hang out for today? Meet me at Breg Epona's Chaos Gate; we're going to:  
(Sigma) Calm Ocean's Magnified_

_See you there!_

Chigusa cocked her head. "This is unusual, why is Kuhn-san suddenly calling on _me _to hang out? Oh well, this should be fun...!"

XXX

Minutes later, Kuhn was standing at Breg Epona's Chaos gate, leaning against the railing and watching the people walk by. Both Haseo and Atoli warped in at the same time. Haseo backed up a little, "Uh! Atoli!"

She blushed and pulled her hands up to her chin, "H-Haseo-san..."

Kuhn looked like he was trying not to burst into hysterics watching the two teenagers stand there, staring at each other... Or rather they were trying to _avoid_ eye contact and facing each other like awkward statues.

Haseo turned his eyes away, trying to hide the fact that he was blushing, "What are you doing here?"

Atoli panicked and bowed, she was also trying to hide her face, "I'm sorry! K-Kuhn-san just invited me to hang out today! I didn't know you'd be here, too!"

"He invited me too..." Haseo said as he shot a glare to Kuhn.

"What?" Kuhn grinned, clearly trying to act innocent. "I thought the three of us could hang out today."

"You failed to mention that in your email."

"Oh, did I now?" He scratched his head, feeling Haseo read his every move. "Sorry about that," he shrugged, "You don't have to get all flustered about it."

Haseo turned bright red and clenched his fists, "I am not flustered!"

"Uh-huh," Kuhn responded sarcastically, rubbing his ear. "Right. I believe you. Not. Just invite Atoli and me into your party and let's go to (Sigma) Calm Ocean's Magnified."

Haseo grumbled as he turned to the Platform and he, Kuhn and Atoli warped to (Sigma) Calm Ocean's Magnified. It was a level 100 forest dungeon with a mission to reach the Beast's Temple.

"Let's have fun!" Atoli smiled.

"Let's go!" Kuhn grinned; Haseo folded his arms and grunted in response.

They awkwardly but quickly made their way to the Beast's Statue. Once there, Haseo stopped just before reaching the treasure chest and turned to Kuhn. "Okay, Kuhn, out with it. What's going on here? Why did you invite both Atoli and me here without telling us?"

"Why would you think I have an agenda here?" Kuhn grinned.

"Because I know you." Haseo glared; Kuhn turned away and shrugged, sweat-dropping and sticking out his tongue.

"I think you're being paranoid."

"Please don't fight you two," Atoli fidgeted. "Let's just get the treasure and go."

"She's right, Haseo."

"In a minute. First, Kuhn, explain yourself!"

Kuhn grinned, "Why are the two of you so flustered today? Find anything interesting on the forums?"

Atoli squeaked, speechless, "..._T-that's _why you invited us? That...!" She and Haseo turned bright red and looked at each other, when their eyes met they flushed deeper and sharply turned away from each other.

"I'll make you talk!" Haseo screamed at Kuhn. "Spill it!"

"H-Haseo-san..." Atoli stammered.

"You won't make me," Kuhn answered.

"You saying I _can't_?"

"No. I'm saying you _won't_. This isn't the Arena, and I'm not a PK, it would _seriously_ damage your reputation."

"Who ever said anything about _PvP_?"

"Haseo-san, calm down...!" Atoli shook her fists.

Kuhn grinned sarcastically, "Oh, you actually have another way of settling things besides brute force? When did this happen? Why wasn't I informed?"

"Grrrr..." Haseo growled.

"Haseo-san," Atoli blushed. "Is it really worth it to get all worked up over some silly picture?"

Haseo turned bright red, "What! That's why...!" Realizing he had let himself slip; he looked away and folded his arms, trying to pretend he had said nothing. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Kuhn burst out laughing; Haseo swung his arm down sharply, "Why are you laughing?" he screamed.

"Oh! Oh gawd...! Oh, oh... Hahahaha...! This is so much better than I thought it would be! Oh... I thought maybe Atoli would have seen that picture on the forums in passing and your usual awkwardness around her would be enough, I never thought that _you _would have actually seen it, too!" Kuhn fell to his knees and flopped himself over the treasure chest as he continued laughing almost silently, banging his fist on the side of the chest.

Atoli turned completely red, "You...! Y-you really...?" She ran to the Platform and transported out.

Haseo, now completely pissed, turned to Kuhn who had stopped laughing and stood up, "You-! Never mind me, but did you really have to go and do that to _her_?"

"Suddenly protective of her, are we?" Kuhn asked coyly, wiping a tear from his eye and jabbing Haseo playfully in the side with his elbow.

"Sh-shut the hell up!" Haseo looked away, red-faced and pushed Kuhn's arm away.

"Send her a Short Mail," Kuhn wrapped his arm around Haseo's shoulders and whispered in his ear. "If you apologize for me and try to be on her side of the situation, she just might like you more! If she gets away, all my efforts will be in vain."

"Are you saying this was some sort of twisted _matchmaking_ service?" Haseo glared fiercely, gripping Kuhn's wrist.

Kuhn sweat-dropped, trying to ignore the fact that Haseo was probably trying to think of a way to kill him without anyone ever noticing, "It's technically not 'matchmaking' if the two parties are already acquainted with each other..."

"Actually, it really makes no difference."

Kuhn didn't even pay attention to the fact that Haseo was talking "...It's more like, 'pushing two people together who are meant for each other'."

Haseo tightened his grip on Kuhn's wrist; his cheeks glowing brighter, "_What_?"

Kuhn winced, "Are saying you you've never entertained the thought?"

Haseo paused; Ryou opened up the menu to send a Sort Mail, "Atoli... Just ignore Kuhn. He's an idiot. Hold on a second, I want to talk to you."

"Haha! There is nothing like PK!" A shrill female voice could be heard from outside the temple.

A male voice accompanied the first, laughing, "Yeah, that's what this game is all about!"

Haseo grinned and let go of Kuhn's wrist; Kuhn pulled away. "Heh. You are so damn lucky..."

"Don't draw attention to yourself... Sakaki-"

"I'd draw _more_ attention to myself if I _didn't _fight PKers," Haseo grinned. "Besides, they're gonna attack me anyway if they see me..." _'And anyway, what does it really matter whether or not I draw attention to myself or not anyway? "Too Cocky" has probably got a permanent channel glued to me ...'_

"Pi will have your head..." Kuhn cautioned in vain. The owners of the two voices walked in. Both Human; one, the girl, was a teen Tribal Grappler with long, blonde hair, a green halter top, khaki short-shorts that seemed to have some form of armor plates over them and green and black high boots; she was also wearing a green hair bow as a decorative hat. Her name was NecoConeco.

The other, the man, was an adult Edge Punisher named Ironhide with silver hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a light blue coat sort of thing and pants with black boots, the armor had yellow adornments. Haseo scowled a little as Ironhide's general PC design reminded him a little of Sakaki before he had infected himself with AIDA.

"Too late!" Haseo grinned. _'Heh. A PKer who looks like "Too Cocky"... I'm going to enjoy this!'_

"Heh. Guess that's true... Pi can't take from Haseo what he's never had to begin with..." Kuhn mumbled to himself and shrugged. Haseo turned around and looked straight at the two PKers.

"It's 'The Terror of Death'...!" Ironhide exclaimed.

"Y-you're Haseo...?" NecoConeco stammered.

"Yeah, yeah," Haseo waved his hand away, showing his disinterest. "Tell me your story of how you have a personal vendetta against me and let's get this over with; I'm _not _in a good mood."

"We won't let you get us!" NecoConeco screamed, readying her fists.

"Been there, heard that. What is it this time? You punks from Kestrel?"

'_I think he __enjoys__ irritating these people...!' _Kuhn sweat-dropped and thought to himself. Ironhide and NeccoConecco lunged at Haseo; he easily dodged NecoConeco's punches and jumped over Ironhide's sword. Coming down from the jump, he pulled out his scythe.

"Heavenly Wheel!" The attack defeated NecoConeco, and left Ironhide weakened. Ironhide moved to attack Haseo, but found that he had disappeared.

"Huh?" Ironhide tried to figure out what happened to his opponent by looking around him. Seconds later, he fell to the ground; his hit points having reached 0. Behind him, Haseo stood holding his dual swords. He reached behind him and put the oversized daggers away.

"I told you I was in a bad mood..." Haseo approached the Platform, pausing for a few seconds, and returned to town. Kuhn watched the two unconscious PCs disappear.

"Eh, heh, heh, heh... I think I may have dodged a bullet there... Or a small freight train..."

* * *

_A/N: Nickname 'Too Cocky' for Sakaki credited to Dad._


	5. Login005: Spring Is In The Air

_A/N: (SPOILERS!) This is supposed to take place during that period after Ovan used the Rebirth and the Netslums and Haseo obtaining the Xth form. Haseo talked about how there was no more AIDA activity and some of the coma victims came back. Since there seemed to be a break there, but no definite period of time for it and the game was still up, I thought this would be a good spot to put some random stuff of them being normal players… Well, as __normal__ as they __can__ be! ;P_

_

* * *

_

Login005: Spring Is In The Air

One day in Mac Anu Haseo was heading towards the Chaos Gate when two other players approached him from behind. They were both female, one was a horned Lei Tribe Steam Gunner named Retasu, she had short, light green hair and was wearing a green and pink laced mini-dress with tight pants underneath, knee-high boots and gauntlets. She had a green wave pattern on her face, as it was the only skin exposed.

Her friend was named l4v3nd3r, she was all lavender as her name suggested; hair, eyes, clothes. She was a teen Human Macabre Dancer with long hair and wearing a flowing skirt that fell to her ankles and a form-fitting top with puffy sleeves.

"Hey, Haseo-sama!" Retasu called out.

Haseo turned in the direction he heard his name called, "Huh?"

The two girls gathered around him looking excited yet somehow disappointed, "Haseo-sama!" Retasu continued. "Is it really true what they're saying on the forums?"

"Are you really getting married?" l4v3nd3r completed her friend's thought.

"What? MARRIED? Where did _this_ come from?" Retasu and l4v3nd3r jumped back at Haseo's yelling.

"I-I don't know!" Retasu answered. "But it's all over the forums! They're saying you and Atoli are getting..."

"Me and _Atoli_? Who started this!"

"No one's quite sure; the rumor just started spreading around. If anyone knows where it started, they aren't admitting it."

"So is it true?" l4v3nd3r asked.

"No! I do not, nor have I ever...!" Haseo pulled back and blushed, at the moment wishing he were still in his 2nd Form with that huge collar to hide his face behind. Retasu and l4v3nd3r giggled. "...Look. I'm seventeen offline; I have school, my part-time job and the rent to deal with. Not to mention a few personal matters... Marriage, whether its online or off, isn't exactly a priority."

"Awww..." Retasu looked dejected.

l4v3nd3r was trying to look hopeful, "Well, will you take our Member Addresses and remember to invite us to the ceremony when you do make plans?" Haseo received their Addresses and they left. As they were walking away, he heard them talking...

"Told you he really liked her!" Retasu said.

"What are you talking about? Seemed like he was just yelling at us to me."

"Yeah, but did you see the way he was blushing when I mentioned Atoli's name? Anyway, I've never seen that character design he's using now before; I wonder where he got it? Not that I really care it makes him look even hotter than before!"

"I heard CC Corp. gave him a special, ultra rare Job Extension for obtaining the triple-crown championship. The Job Class it represents is reeeaaaally hard to obtain. Kind of like the Werewolf class from Revision One, only harder and only available to Adept Rogues. They were going to give it to him at the Coronation Ceremony after he won the Sage Palace Crown, but then the party was canceled and they just gave it to him."

'_So, that's the rumor going around about the Xth Form?' _Haseo thought. _'...Thanks to "Too Cocky" there are probably some "it's a hacked character, now he's being an open cheater" rumors going around too. Which is partly true, but like hell I'm going to tell anyone that! No one would ever believe __anyone__ but me did it, let alone the Guild Master of __Moon Tree__...!'_

After watching the place they vacated for a while, he logged out and checked the forums. There was one thread about it in The World section of the Community Forums (although that one seemed to had been shut down) and one in the Rumors board. As the girls said, there were no clues on either of where the rumor had started.

"What is going on here...?" Ryou said to himself.

Meanwhile in Breg Epona two guys were standing on the bridge-like pathway between the elevator and the Guild Shops, "I don't care if Haseo-dono beats me up!" One spoke up, he was a Human teen Twin Blade, his brown hair was in a mop cut almost like IYOTEN's, but the bangs didn't cover his eyes. He wore a dark blue half shirt and pants with a blue wave pattern on his shoulders and stomach. He also had a mark over his left eye like a scar. His friend, a lion Ya Tribe Tribal Grappler, snickered as he continued, "I think its stupid that our Guild Master wants us to stay in hiding! I want to shout it from the rooftops! Atoli-hime is _hot_!"

"Good one, blupepper!" The Beast was wearing a tan tunic sort of thing and puffy pants, his fur was an orange-ish brown. "Except you forgot to take your speech out of Whisper... You say this about three times a week, I starting to think you're really not all that serious about it."

"Don't give me that KungFuOtaku, so I have a little stage fright..."

"And anyway, haven't you heard that rumor going around? Haseo and Atoli are going to be participating in the marriage event at Hy Brasail."

bluepepper wasn't paying attention and was looking over at the shops, "OMG, there she is...!" KungFuOtaku turned to where bluepepper was looking; Atoli was standing by Shop Acorn with Bo and talking to Gaspard. "I'm gonna go talk to her!"

"Hold it!" KungFuOtaku grabbed onto his friend's shoulder. "Don't you remember the first rule of the Atoli Fanboy Club?"

"...Never make contact with Atoli-hime..."

"...Without the consent of the Guild Master and witnessed by three other members of the guild. Haseo must also be confirmed absent," KungFuOtaku finished his friend's sentence.

Haseo walked by them towards the shop of interest, "Atoli!" He called out, Atoli jumped slightly in surprise and turned to him. She seemed a little shocked, but happy to see him.

"Well, there goes _any_ hope you had at all of talking to her," KungFuOtaku turned to his friend. "Let's go back to the AtHome."

At Shop Acorn, Atoli pulled her hands up to her chest as Haseo walked up. "Ha-Haseo-san..." she blushed and watched Haseo's path to her become obscured by Bo and Gaspard gathering around him and began talking to him. '_He's so much more intimidating now with that new Form... Huh...?' _She looked at his face; the smile on it seemed to be forced. She switched her chat to Whisper. "A-are you okay?"

"Huh?" Haseo responded; Gaspard and Bo pulled away, Gaspard returned to the shop and Bo bowed to Atoli as a farewell. _'Hm. I guess I didn't hide my face enough... She hasn't said anything, she probably hasn't heard the rumor yet...' _"Oh, it's nothing."

"Worried about Ovan-san?"

"Uh..." '_But this really isn't something I can keep from her...' _"Actually..." His attention was diverted; a group of three girls ran up. All of them were Human, one of them an adult, the other two teens. One teen was a red Shadow Warlock with a jester's hat and robes, the other was a purple Twin Blade wearing a kunoichi outfit, and the adult was a green Blade Brandier with red hair in a ponytail and a silver chest-plate.

The Twin Blade approached them first, "Like, oh my god, are you two like, heading out to Hy Brasail now?"

"What?" Atoli cocked her head. "What are you talking about...?"

Haseo backed up a little; the Blade Brandier looked at Atoli, puzzled, _'Oh, crap. This is not good...' _he thought. _'Dammit! I got to get Atoli away from here. I don't want her finding out about it like this the way I did...' _"Atoli, go to the AtHome."

"H-huh?"

"Just go to the AtHome. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"O-okay..." Atoli headed off to the AtHome as Haseo turned to the three girls.

"Aren't you two doing the marriage event today?" the Blade Brandier asked.

"No," he answered.

"Aww... Why not...?" the Warlock asked. "You two look so cute together...!"

Haseo rested his forehead in his hand, feeling he had had this conversation one too many times already, "Where did you three hear about this?"

"The forums," the Brandier answered.

"So none of you know where this started?" He asked, tying his hardest to make sure they understood he wasn't angry. The three shook their heads. "Okay, listen. Just drop it. It's not true."

"Aw shucks..." The Warlock said and they left, looking disappointed.

"What were they talking about, Haseo?" Gaspard asked. Haseo turned to the shop and looked surprised; he had forgotten that this happened in front of his guild shop.

"Oh. This rumor's begun spreading around that Atoli and I are participating in the wedding event they opened recently at Hy Brasail."

"You mean it's not true? I only heard about it, but thought it must be true, you two do hang out all the time."

"No. ... Hold on a second, I think I may know where this came from..."

XXX

"I swear! I don't know anything about it! Aside from what I've read on the forums myself!" Kuhn shouted. Haseo had backed him into a corner in Raven's AtHome, pointing his dual guns at his head. Kuhn looked uncharacteristically terrified so Haseo figured he must be telling the truth and pulled the guns down and put them away at his sides.

"What have you heard?"

"Just that you and Atoli were going to go to Hy Brasail and get married and..."

"What is all this noise out here?" Pi asked, walking out from the Serpent of Lore.

"Haseo was just asking me about that rumor about him and Atoli," Kuhn answered.

Pi shifted her weight, "Oh. That thing."

"'That thing'? You've heard of it too?" Haseo looked a little worried.

"Yeah," Kuhn scratched the back of his head. "It's spreading around CC Corp., too. Apparently Customer Services is receiving a lot of emails asking when the ceremony will be held and if it will be streamed on the Official Site. That's the only other thing I've heard that wasn't on the forums."

"Damn!"

"What are you trying to do, anyway?" Pi asked, adjusting her glasses. "Track the source of the rumor? What do you plan to do once you find them?"

"I don't know... I'm feeling restless and I don't think I'll get over this feeling until I know where everyone got this idea. In any case, it's keeping my mind off other things..."

"Does Atoli know about this yet?" Kuhn asked.

"Not the last time I saw her." Haseo answered; before he left, he received a Short Mail from Atoli:

_Um, Haseo-san? Silabus-san is here at the AtHome with a bunch of items, saying they're wedding gifts for us, you and me... Can you come over here? I-I think I may know how this started..._

"She thinks she knows where it started...?"

"What?" Kuhn asked.

Haseo didn't notice that he had spoken out loud, "Huh...? Oh. Atoli just sent me a Short Mail saying she thinks she knows where it started, I should find out what she means, I'm heading over to Canard's AtHome."

XXX

Haseo walked into Canard's AtHome to find Atoli giggling and playing with Death Grunty, who was ecstatic; Silabus didn't appear to be there anymore. He blushed watching the pig-like copy of him cuddling with her, he stepped down to the next step and folding his arms, continuing to watch her play for a few seconds.

She stood, turning to him and holding Death Grunty to her chest in her arms "Oh. Y-you're here."

He let his arms down and tried to hide his flushed cheeks from her, "Yeah. I headed over as soon as I got your mail. What did you mean when you said you think you might know where this started?"

"Well..." she fidgeted. "Remember the wedding event I dragged you to yesterday?"

"Oh, yeah," he said thoughtfully. "Why were we there again?"

"The bride was a friend of mine from Moon Tree."

"Someone who worked under _Sakaki_?" he folded his arms. He still did not like her bringing up the subject of that other guild she was in considering all that had happened with her unit leader.

"N-no." She jumped back at his anger and turned red with embarrassment for him bringing up the uncomfortable subject. "Actually she was in Kaede-sama's unit, but we got to know each other because we did a couple seminars together."

"Oh," He let his arms down. "So, what does this have to do with the rumor about us...?"

"I, uh... may have asked her a few questions about how to qualify for the wedding event... And since you and I went to the ceremony together, she must have thought I was looking to _actually_..."

"_What_?"

"I know! I-I'm sorry!" she bowed. "It was a stupid thing for me to do but it's only natural for a girl my age to be curious about these sorts of things!" Haseo didn't respond. "...Haseo-san? Are... are you mad at me?"

He rubbed his neck, "Not really. Frustrated, yes, but mostly..." He laughed out loud, releasing the tension he felt. "I'm just relieved to know where this all started and I feel kind of silly having run all over the place trying to figure this out, when all along I could have just talked to you."

She laughed nervously, somewhat relieved that she had not made him angry again, "Now, what are we going to do about these gifts?"

"We could sell them," he grinned.

"Haseo-san!" she cried out. "These are _wedding_ gifts! You can't just turn around and _sell_ them!"

A came from the top of the stairs; Silabus was standing on the balcony, trying not to laugh. Haseo growled, "How long have you been there? I thought you left!"

"Nah," Silabus wiped a tear from his eye. "I was just tinkering around in the Alchemy Shop. I've been here since 'the bride was a friend of mine from Moon Tree'."

"So you've been eavesdropping the whole time?"

"Well, I would have had to pass by you in order to leave so it was like 'have you yell at me now, or yell at me later'. But her reaction to you wanting to sell those items...! XD" Silabus laughed again.

"'They're wedding gifts', that's precisely _why_ I want to sell them!" Haseo hollered. "Besides, people return unwanted wedding gifts _all_ the _time_! _Especially_ if they aren't _having_ a _wedding_!"

Atoli turned red and looked like she was about to cry; Silabus placed his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.

"Atoli...!" Haseo groaned. "Please don't look at me like that...!" He ran up to her and she turned away; he was trying to hide the fact that he was panicking. "Atoli, please! Don't cry! Okay? Fine! I _won't_ sell them! I'll even return them _personally_ if you'll just _stop crying_!"

"Really?" She sniffed as she looked up at him.

"Yes!" He was almost screaming; he looked over at Silabus, who had descended the stairs by this time. "Are you _enjoying_ this...?"

"Aside from Atoli's crying, yes. :D"

"That's what I thought..." Haseo glared. "Isn't there something Gaspard could use your help with?"

"Not really," Silabus beamed and headed towards the door. "But I guess there are a few things I could find to occupy my time."

"You tell anybody what you just saw and you're dead!"

Silabus sped up and began running towards the door, "LMAO! XD"

"Seriously! If Kuhn even _hints_ at this conversation, you're _dead_!"

"Okay! Fine! I won't tell him! LOL!"

"Same goes for you if you're watching, Yata!" Haseo shouted as he looked around the room. Seconds later, he received a Short Mail from Yata.

_Why would I do that? I find that part of Kuhn's personality just as annoying as you do._

"Well, I guess I'll be going now..." Atoli announced abruptly as she followed Silabus out the door. Haseo reached his hand out to stop her, but she was gone before he could say anything.

* * *

_A/N: For those of you who felt that the first rule of the Atoli Fanboy Club sounded familiar, yes it was borrowed from _Fruits Basket. _:P_


	6. Login006: The Problem With Newbies

_A/N: Okay, this takes place after the game's storyline has completed, including the Forest of Pain. Chapters from now on will probably be longer due to the fact that I have to write my own plot now. haha. BTW: the first area featured here is a real area in the GU games and those rocks really are there!_

* * *

Login006: The Problem With Newbies

_Sender: Haseo  
To: All Canard Members  
Subject: New Guild Members_

_Okay, with nothing else better to do I'm gonna try this 'being a full-time Guild Master' thing, so… Since so many new people have joined, I'm sending out a list of the purpose and members of Canard._

_Purpose: To teach new players how to play the game, protect newbies and intermediates from Player Killer attacks and assist the remnants of 'Moon Tree' in rebuilding their guild._

_Senior Staff: Haseo (Guild Master & Protection Services), Kuhn (Newbie Training), Silabus (Homepage/Advertisement), Gaspard (Shop Management), Atoli (Canard's Ambassador to Moon Tree)_

_Canard Members: Shino, Pi, Saku, Endrance, Yata/Nala, Alkaid, Tabby, Piros the 3rd, 3ndora, Natsume, Antares, Satomi, PrickedRose, Ruchba, Matsu, Bo, Kaede_

_New Moon Tree Members: Zelkova (Guild Master), Kaede (Moon Tree's Ambassador to Canard), Matsu (Protection Services), Bekunai, Yousuke, Yata/Nala, Atoli, Satomi_

_We're still a small guild, but at least we're starting to __look__ functional. We'll be having a "meeting/party" tomorrow around three to welcome all new members (Atoli and Silabus' idea, not mine…)_

XXX

Later in Canard's AtHome, Haseo was talking with Silabus and Gaspard in the center of the room; Kuhn was reclining on the bench by the stairs, looking bored. Endrance walked in, "Haseo... I must speak with you..."

"Huh?" Haseo turned to Endrance, a little worried because he seemed to have _that look _in his eye.

"I must..." Endrance clasped both of Haseo's hands in his own; Silabus and Gaspard jumped back and Kuhn sat up, suddenly more interested. Haseo got chills and turned red with embarrassment. "Haseo-dono...! I pledge my undying love to you...!"

Haseo turned redder as the three witnesses snickered, "Wh-what the-! What the _hell_?"

"But..." Endrance let their hands drop and clasped his hands together at his chest. "My heart... Understands that yours lies with Atoli..."

"Just where the hell are you going with this anyway?"

"So instead...!" he gestured grandly. "I shall devote my life to making sure you and Atoli are happy together...!"

Haseo turned ashen; Kuhn fell on the floor in hysterics, Haseo turned to Kuhn. "Ya enjoying this, _asshole_?"

"Yes!" he smirked. Haseo turned to Kuhn to attack him when Endrance grabbed his hands again.

"And… For the first act of my new life's devotion, I shall give you this Bookmark...! Bring your love here, she is sure to enjoy it...!"

_**Screen reads: (Delta) Protected Cupola's Cathedral saved to Bookmarks.**_

"O-kay..."

"You know what they say... 'If you truly love someone, let them go..." Endrance had a quiet smile on his face. Haseo sweat-dropped and Kuhn began humming some old song that had similar lyrics.

XXX

About an hour later in the fore-mentioned area, it was a level 49 field with a twilight setting and a mission to reach the Beast Temple. Haseo and Atoli warped in by a Platform behind the Temple, "Huh...? What are we doing here?" She asked, confused. "This area's only level 49."

He looked away, blushing a little, _'Why did Endrance give me this Bookmark anyway...? Then again, I actually brought her here...'_ "We're both 150, what does it really matter?"

"I-I just... It's not like you to just go to such a low level area like this..."

Trying to ignore what she said, he started walking on ahead to the left, "Hey." He pointed at some offshore rocks. "Look over there."

She looked where the boy was indicting; there she found some small birds perched atop the rocks. As the two stepped closer, the programming for two of the birds was tripped and they flew off, but the others still remained. She clasped her hands together at her chest, "Oh...! How _adorable_...! Huh, ueeh...?" She blushed and turned to him. "D-did you bring me here to show me this...?"

He looked away again and smiled lightly, "Yeah..." an awkward silence followed, "Huh?" He looked over to her, she was tearing up. He blushed and sweat-dropped, feeling that he did something wrong. "I-I didn't mean to-"

"Thank you!" She cried out and jumped into his arms, tears of joy flying. He turned bright red, staggering to maintain his balance. After a few seconds, she sharply pulled away, afraid that she might have done something to anger him again. But instead of yelling at her and pushing her away like she expected, he just stood there staring at her with a soft expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, he had noticed her staring at him with a bemused look on her face. She turned her back to him, her face red and unsure of how to react.

"N-nothing! I... I just kind of expected you to yell at me again."

"I deserve that," he blushed. "I can be an idiot sometimes."

"No, I'm the idiot."

"We're both idiots, okay?" He tried to get her to turn around to show that he was joking; she turned to him and blushed.

_'What's been going on with him lately...? He's been acting so different towards me since that one day at Hulle Granz with Shino...'_

"I..." he stammered. "Could I have your cell number?"

She blushed, "Wh-wha...?"

"I-I'll give you my number, too, I just figured-"

"I know, I'm sorry... I've just never had a guy ask for my phone number before. You ready?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah."

"Okay, 5..." She began when he heard the tone indicating he had a Short Mail. It read…

haseo come to canards athome quick its an emergency  
silabus

'_What's wrong? Silabus' punctuation is usually so good... Hahhh...'_ "I'm sorry, Atoli, could you send me your number in a mail or something? I'll do the same, Silabus just called me and it sounds serious."

"Th-that's okay, I should probably be logging out now myself... I have a lot of homework; I only logged on because you called on me. I probably won't be back on again tonight."

"Oh. Okay. Hopefully this problem won't take more than an hour to fix, I've been asked to be the guest commentator for a round in the Holy Palace."

"Oh? Really?" She asked, now wishing she had done her homework earlier.

"Yeah. I've been told already who the competitors are; it's Alkaid, those two friends you and her made a couple days ago and they're fighting some people I've never heard of... One likes to eat _soup_ apparently."

XXX

"Oh! Haseo!" Silabus cried, grabbing onto Haseo's arm as he entered the AtHome. "Thank God you're here! I've been trying to get a hold of you!"

"Yeah, I got the Short Mails," Haseo responded. "But I couldn't understand what you were saying half the time... What is it?"

"Sorry, I was kind of panicked. Well, you see, it's like this... Despite the current depopulation because of that 'Cubia' thing, we're still receiving a lot of business from newbies, and an increasing number of them seem to be girls asking specifically for _your_ help. Up until now I've been able to pawn most of them off onto Kuhn or Endrance, but..."

"Wait. _Endrance_ agreed to train _newbies_?"

"...Kuhn _may_ have implied that you _personally_ asked him to do it." Haseo glared and Silabus sweat-dropped. "A-anyway, soon after you stormed out of here when Endrance made that 'vow' to you or whatever that was, Gaspard and I returned to Shop Acorn and there were these two girls standing there..."

"They won't move!" Gaspard cried. "Not until you take them to an area and show them how to play the game! They've even set up a boycott in front of Shop Acorn in Mac Anu! ;( "

"We've tried everyone! Kuhn, Pi, Endrance, Yata, Shino... They're pretty adamant about having _you_."

Haseo sweat-dropped, "Y-you're serious...?"

"No joke!" Silabus shook his head as he gestured outwardly with his hand.

"Okay, that's weird," Haseo couldn't believe his ears as he laughed uncomfortably. "I can understand Yata and Pi; they could probably _scare_ some people _away_ when up close... But Endrance and Kuhn are pretty charismatic and I've seen a lot of newbies take a liking to Shino's quiet-but-commanding personality..."

"Like you?" Silabus and Gaspard turned to Haseo simultaneously.

"I am not a newbie!" He growled at them. He quickly pulled back when he noticed his yelling scared Gaspard. "Sorry Gaspard, I'm not mad at you, I just didn't expect to hear that from you two."

Gaspard's face brightened up and he hugged Haseo's legs.

"We're sorry too," Silabus grinned; placing one hand on his hip. "It's just that that Tabby girl was telling us stories about the Twilight Brigade earlier..."

"She talked a lot about someone named 'Sakisaka-sensei' and how she always noticed you'd have a tendency to just stare at Shino," Gaspard chimed in.

Flustered, Haseo pulled away from Gaspard and adverted his eyes, "! I was not-damn-how dare she-! Agh!" He breathed out a sigh of aggravation and instantly calmed down. "Okay, I'll do this. It's my duty as the Guild Master, right? Are they still on? Where are they?"

"Last I saw them, they were still in front of Shop Acorn," Gaspard answered.

"Okay," Haseo laughed again. "I'll go deal with them." He left.

Silabus leaned over to his friend, "Hey, Gaspard. That _was_ Haseo, wasn't it? That wasn't one of his imposters, was it?"

"Of course it was him! I don't think many of his imposters know where the Netslum is anyway… Let alone the ability to get into the AtHome."

"Okay, it's just... he's always been so stubborn. I guess I just expected to get a lot more argument out of him."

"He's changed."

"Yeah he has."

XXX

Minutes later, Haseo warped into Mac Anu as Tabby came running up to him, "Hey! Haseo! Whacha doin'?"

He smiled, it had been a long time since the two of them had been together, and he was still getting readjusted to all her energy. Still, he was glad she had decided to continue playing on occasion in-between her studies, "Hey, Tabby. I'm just on my way to pick up some newbies and show them the ropes. Silabus tells me they won't accept anyone else."

"Which one's Silabus again?"

"The green Blade Brandier, hangs out with a Tu Tribe dog a lot." He held his hand out to indicate Gaspard's height. "He said you were telling them stories about the Twilight Brigade earlier today."

She blinked a couple times, "Oh yeah! Him! I like him! Anyway, want me to join you?"

"Nah. I should be able to handle it. Besides, there's two of them and you can only have a party of three."

"Well, tell them I said 'good luck'!" She waved, running towards the Save Shop. Haseo smiled awkwardly and waved back as he turned to the door and left the Dome. When he arrived in the Central area, he found the two girls in question; one was a feline Lei Tribe Flick Reaper named Halo Cat, she had sandy blond fur and hair and was wearing a white and yellow kunoichi outfit with golden obi and laces on her boots. The other was a teen Human Adept Rogue with a Blade Brandier job; she had short, blue hair and wore purple halter-top, black pants with belt buckles around them and matching boots, her name was Daisy. He approached them.

"Excuse me. Are you two the newbies seeking help from Canard?"

Daisy Whispered to Halo Cat, "Holy crap! I can't believe he actually showed up!"

He turned his head, watching them stare at him and giggle. He sweat-dropped, _'I got a baaaad feeling about this...'_

Halo Cat bowed, "Thank you so much for taking the time to teach us! A player like you must be really busy!"

"No problem," He smiled, belying his thoughts. _'You boycotted in front of my guild's shop! Of course I was going to __eventually__ show up!'_ The two girls blushed, watching his smile. "Now, which one of you wants to be the party leader?"

They looked at him, confused, "We both kind of thought _you _were going to be the leader," Daisy answered.

"Well, that would be easier, but then neither one of you would learn how to manage a party."

"I guess I'll be the leader," Halo Cat spoke up; Haseo held his hand out to both of them.

"Okay, here's my Member Address. Member Addresses are sort of a, uh, short e-mail address that can only be used in The World. You can only form parties with people whose Member Addresses you have. Now, Halo Cat, open up your party menu and invite your friend and I into your party." _'I don't like the idea of giving fangirls my Member Address, but they need it in order for me to teach them the game... I'll just ask Pi or Yata if they can have it removed later.'_

Halo Cat fidgeted nervously while Haseo taught how to use the party menu. Shortly, he and Daisy were added to her party, "There!"

"Okay, now let's head to the Chaos Gate," Haseo began to explain about Chaos Gates while he guided them towards the Dome. Once they got there they warped to (Delta) Buzzing Wrath's Nemesis, a level 3 field with a midday setting and a Beast Temple mission. "Okay," the boy said. "Now this area's mission is to arrive at the Beast's Temple..."

He continued on to explain about areas and they walked around a small hill, but the girls seemed to be paying attention to only about half of it. They were mostly just staring at him and whispering among themselves. "I can't believe this actually worked!" Daisy said. "I changed my mind; let's not tell any of our friends about it. If we do, they'll try the same thing and monopolize his time! This should be just our little secret!"

"Yeah," Halo Cat responded. "I was just thinking the same thing, but we still got to find a way to get him to fight a battle."

"...and obtain the Symbol Fragments. Are you two listening?" Haseo finished as he turned to the girls, they both bowed and turned red.

"Yessir!"

"Anyway," He pointed over at a party of monsters guarding a treasure chest. "There's our first target." With his instruction, the three worked their way through the area and eventually collected all three Symbol Fragments.

"We did it!" Daisy squealed when Halo Cat obtained the third Symbol Fragment; the three fragments turned into the Judge's Symbol.

"Great," he smiled. "Now let's head to the Beast's Temple! There should only be a few more monsters to fight along the way and we'll be done once we reach the temple." The girls nodded and did as they were told; they headed for the Beast Temple. When they arrived at the Inner Door; faint sounds of struggling could be heard.

"D-didn't you say there wouldn't be any more monsters to fight?" Daisy asked.

Haseo seemed to hear her, but was listening to the struggling, growling a little, "Those sounds aren't from monsters...!"

He opened the door. Inside, a boar Ya Tribe Lord Partizan had just struck down a teen Human Harvest Cleric, also male. A male Human Shadow Warlock, also an adult, was standing to the side, aiming a spell at the Cleric.

Now, the Partizan's name was stew luvr, his fur was kind of a whitish gray and wearing burgundy heavy armor. The Warlock was a little harder to see, most of his body was covered by a purple cloak, but white tight pants and brown archer boots could be seen from underneath. Locks of his black hair hung in the middle of the few areas of his face that could be seen. His name was 2hot4U. Lastly SmwseGmgee, the Cleric, had dusty blonde hair and brown cloth armor.

stew luvr readied the deathblow when Haseo appeared between him and Smwse. He had one of his dual swords to stew luvr's neck and one of his dual guns pointed at 2hot4U, "It takes a Lord Partizan and a Shadow Warlock to take down one newbie Harvest Cleric?" he glared.

"Tsk," stew luvr scoffed.

"Ha... se... o..." 2hot4U checked Haseo's character information. "Uh! He's that famous PKK that's won all three Arena Tournaments!"

"Heh," stew luvr grinned and readied his lance. "Perfect. I was getting tired of hunting newbies; it'd be nice to fight a worthy opponent for once."

Haseo pulled his weapons down, looked away and closed his eyes, "Get out of here. I don't even want to waste the energy it would take to take you weaklings down." Oh, by the way, Halo Cat and Daisy were watching and seemed to be enjoying this.

"stew," 2hot4U was beginning to get nervous. "I don't feel like getting PKKed; let's just do as he says! And honestly, we're _barely_ pulling ourselves through the _Holy_ Palace, you _really_ want to take on the _Sage_ Palace's _Triple_ Crown _Emperor_?"

"I won't back down!" stew answered.

"Gr...!" Haseo tried hiding his irritation. _'This guy just doesn't want to take a hint!' _"Okay, I'll give it to you plainly; either you leave now in one piece..." He pointed his dual gun at stew's forehead. "Or I'll give you a personal invitation back to the Chaos Gate."

"stew! Dude!" 2hot4U began screaming. "Let's just leave! Do you _realize_ how much of an _opportunity_ we're getting here? From what I've read about this guy on the forums, we should be _dead_ by now!"

stew looked like he was going to continue being stubborn.

"Fine," Haseo said flatly. "You brought this down on yourself." He pulled the trigger, knocking stew into the wall. Not realizing the beast's hit points had already reached 0, he put away the gun and pulled out his dual swords. "Ghost Falcon!"

stew hit the floor with a thud. Haseo stood over him, "Man! You don't have much do you? I'll take this accessory of yours here, the material attached to it should be useful to my friends here..." He stood straight and turned to 2hot4U. "And you."

He looked like his player was probably wetting his pants, "Uh...!"

"Since you were trying to avoid this, I won't attack you. You can revive your friend once we leave."

"O-okay."

Haseo turned to Halo and Daisy, smiling as if nothing had happened and explained about the Beast Statue, Halo Cat followed his instructions and opened the treasure box, and then he turned to Daisy.

"Here," he said, holding out his hand. "This is the accessory I got from that PKer, use the 'Customize' menu to remove the material from it and attach it to an accessory more appropriate for your level. You and Halo Cat might find it useful in leveling up in the future, and the accessory would fetch a nice price at the shops. I'll get you a good deal if you go to Canard. You know where that is."

SmwseGmgee, the newbie stew and 2hot4U had been attacking (no I didn't forget about him), turned to Haseo and bowed, "Thanks for saving me!"

"No problem," Haseo folded his arms and smiled awkwardly. "Now, if you'd like to really learn how to play the game from honest players, go to Canard, my guild. We specialize in greeting new players to the game, if you follow these girls to the shop, the player there can set you up with someone."

"Oh! Thank you!" Smwse bowed again. The four then left the area.

XXX

_Sender: Haseo  
To: Silabus  
Subject: Those Girls_

_Listen, Silabus. If anything like that ever happens again, just hand them over to Kuhn and whether I am or not, tell them I'm busy but if they really want to meet me you'll let me know, okay? You and Gaspard go off and have fun and don't think about it, Kuhn can handle it. Anyway, I'm not sure whether or not those girls were really newbies, I think they were just fangirls who agreed to make secondary characters together to try and see if they could lure me out. Or they really were new, and they saw those articles and read the forums before logging in. Either way, they're going to tell their friends and I don't want my time consumed with 'teaching' their girlfriends how to play so they can ogle me._

_Oh, and please don't tell Atoli about this mess... She'll have a fit._


	7. Login007: Arena Commentary

Login007: Arena Commentary

"Hello folks! And welcome to the second round of the Holy Palace Tournament!" The Commentator's energetic voice rang out through the Arena; spectators took their seats to watch the upcoming round. "The heat of competition is brewing! Today's competitors are..."

Alkaid, along with two others, both Human teen girls, one a red Blade Brandier named CrimsonBella, the other a lime green Harvest Cleric named Kiwi-Queen, warped in on one side. The Commentator continued, "Alkaid, the former Demon Palace Emperor, has decided to move on and take the Holy Palace crown! Looks like she's got some new partners with her for this round! She is accompanied by CrimsonBella and Kiwi-Queen!" A wave of cheers rose from the spectator stands.

"And their opponents are..." He continued the introductions; stew luvr, 2hot4U and a Human teen male Edge Punisher named Snake warped in on the other side. "stew luvr and his comrades, 2hot4U and Snake! This is their first time in the Arena, but they've been keeping their own through the competition! But how will they fair against Alkaid?" Another set of cheering called out.

"And for commentary, we have Canard's Guild Master and Triple-Crown Emperor, Haseo!"

"Hey." Haseo stood with his arms folded and nodded his head. A number boos were added to the cheering and about half of the remaining cheers seemed to be mostly _squeals_ from girls. There were also shouts such as 'you suck!' 'damn you, cheater!' 'We love you!' and 'give me back my girlfriend!' dispersed through the crowd. He watched the screens, sweat-dropping and laughing nervously.

The Commentator sweat-dropped _'Definitely can't say he doesn't have a __presence__ about him...' _"What are your comments on today's competitors?"

"No competition," Haseo answered. "This'll be an easy victory for Alkaid."

"What do you mean?"

"Both Alkaid and stew luvr are strong fighters, but stew is overconfident in himself and Alkaid has much more conviction as a player. This'll be over with quickly."

The match began; stew luvr made the attack first swinging his lance at Alkaid, but he was too late, she had already dodged his attack. Meanwhile, 2hot4U cast Ani Zot on Kiwi-Queen; CrimsonBella intercepted while the Warlock was distracted and used Ogre Sword to defeat him. Snake swung his blade at Alkaid, she jumped up and landed lightly in a crouching position, standing on the man's blade; she attacked him with Whirlwind, Snake fell to his knees, this left stew to himself. By this time the girls' Morale meter had filled and they released an Awakening on him.

"It-it's over!" the Commentator declared. "Alkaid has won!"

"Like I said, no competition," Haseo responded. The Commentator continued on about the match.

"Hey," Haseo Whispered to Alkaid. "Congrats! You did well out there!"

"Thanks!" She blushed, looking up at the spectator screens and hoping to catch a glimpse of him. "That feels nice coming from you, Haseo!"

"Huh? Well, there are things I should probably be getting to offline now; I guess I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow?"

She watched him warp out of the commentator box through the screen and smiled, "He really is like an awkward little kid sometimes..."

"If Alkaid takes the Holy Palace crown, you may have some competition on your hands, huh, Has..." The Commentator began when noticed Haseo was no longer next to him. "Dammit! Why do all my guest commentators disappear on me?" His veins began throbbing. "I'm going to make this box so no one can leave until I say so! I'm getting so sick everyone leaving me hang... Huh? What's that? I'm still broadcasting?" A warped "click" was heard and the spectators began filing out.

Outside in the town of Lumina Cloth stew luvr warped out on the participant side. He looked around and found Haseo walking down the steps, "Hey! 'Emperor'!" He called out gruffly; Haseo turned to him, looking a little pissed.

"What do you want? And if you say 'revenge', I'm kicking your ass! I'm getting so tired of hearing that from people who can't even _begin_ to make good on their threat!"

stew grinned, he did not hear anything Haseo said after 'revenge', "You read my mind!"

"stew," 2hot4U caught up; Snake was following him. "I keep telling you, you can't get your revenge on him now. It only took him one _bullet_ to beat you last time!"

"He got lucky!"

"Gawd! I must've gone too easy on you last time!" Haseo growled. Many passersby began gathering around them and whispering with each other.

"Is that stew luvr over there challenging _Haseo-sama_…?"

"Alkaid-hime just thoroughly kicked stew's ass, where does he get the idea that he can stand even _two seconds_ in a fight against _Haseo-sama_?"

"Maybe he just didn't like the commentary! XD"

One passerby, a Human male child, turned to Alkaid who had just warped out on the participants' side, "Hey, just how hard did you hit that guy, anyway?"

"Huh?" She was caught by surprise; the passerby pointed her over to the stairs where Haseo now had his hand clutched to stew luvr's neck.

"I never thought it was possible to mess up someone's head by hitting them in an online game, but stew luvr's _clearly_ lost it!"

"'_Prove _I'm a cheater'?" Haseo shouted. "Do you have an _original_ thought of your own? I get _twenty_ of those kinds of threats everyday! You know how many of them _actually_ do anything about it? One or two, if _any_! _Most_ of them are afraid of what I'll do to them if they _actually_ attack me!" He tried to look angry, but couldn't help from laughing. "But you! You're in a class of stupidity _all_ your own!"

Alkaid ran towards the steps, reaching out her hand, "Haseo-!"

She tried to intercept when the NPC at the reception desk interrupted her, "Attention patrons of 'The World'! Fighting in Lumina Cloth outside of the Arena Colleseos is strictly prohibited!"

Haseo whipped his hand away, stew bent over to catch his breath, "Tsk! Fine! You want to settle this? You and me, in the Ranking Colleseo! NOW!" He folded his arms. "You may take your teammates with you if you think it'll help."

"Dude..." 2hot4U began backing away, waving his hands in front of him. "I've been telling you all day to lay off this guy! I am not getting involved with this!"

Snake also began backing away, "M-my agreement was for the Holy Palace Tournament _only_! Now that we've been knocked out, there's no reason for me to be here! Bye!" He ran as fast as he could towards the Chaos Gate, stew luvr looked around him in surprise, suddenly finding himself on his own.

Haseo grinned coldly, "A little lonely out on that limb by yourself?"

"Urg! I don't care! I'll take you on myself!" stew declared; several of the gathering spectators ran past them to get to the Spectator's Platform (they ain't gonna miss this! XD) Alkaid sweat-dropped and joined them.

Haseo clasped his hand to his forehead, _'Man! This guy's as bad as Bordeaux and Negimaru put __together__! At least __they__ kept within the same __level__ range as me! This guy's gotta be at __least__ 70 below me!' _he paused for a couple seconds as Ryou checked stew luvr's character information._ 'Guh...! He's 63! If I use a __weapon__ it'll be like picking on a __baby__!'_

Minutes later in the ranking Colleseo, the Commentator rambled off his usual spiel, adding a little extra to note that Haseo was one of the participants. Haseo warped in on one side and stew luvr warped in on the other. Seconds later they warped again into the battle area and the battle began. stew luvr drew his lance while Haseo just stood calmly with his arms folded, "Okay, I'll give you three reasons why your challenge to me was stupid."

Haseo evaded a thrust, stew luvr tried for another swing but failed; Haseo appeared behind him, "Number one; our levels. Mine is much higher than yours. In fact, your level's so low next to mine, part of me is wondering why I'm even bothering with this... But if I don't, you'll never learn your lesson."

stew turned around and swung again, Haseo casually blocked the swing with his hand. stew drew back and tried another angle, but was blocked again. This went on for about a minute, meanwhile the spectators began to converse.

"Man, that's scary..." A male PC who looked as if he may had been in the Medic Union shuddered. "Haseo-sama's not even _trying_ to hide the fact that he's just _playing_ with stew. He really is a scary guy."

"Yeah, but that's what makes him so _cool_!" Some teenage girl squealed out; hearts floating out of her.

"Number two," Haseo continued on with his lecture. "You've set your character with high offensive stats, and not concerning yourself much with your armor. While you've had luck up until now, against a well-experienced player like myself you can't control it. This is also why you lost to Alkaid. Not to mention that even _her_ level is above yours!"

"He's acting like a twelve year-old who's found an amusing baby toy," another spectator spoke up.

"I've seen some idiots challenge the Emperor before," an adult male spoke up. "But this takes the cake! I mean... Has stew luvr even reached level 100 yet?"

"I caught it at the beginning of the fight; he's level 63," the teen girl answered.

"And what's Haseo-sama?" the man continued. "150? That's almost a 90 level difference! And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that their skills are on _totally_ different levels!"

"Wanna know what's really funny?" the Tu Tribe laughed. "stew's a member of the Ya Tribe so he's twice the size of Haseo, who's a Human teen, and he's not even making a _dent_! ...When you really think about it, physically Haseo's kinda _tiny_, isn't he?"

"LOL That's so true, but you're one to talk as a member of the Tu Tribe."

"Heh. True. It was merely an observation."

"Piercing Heaven!" stew shouted, Haseo took the attack with no attempts to block, the attack did no damage to him anyway and he quickly returned to his feet. This went on a few more times with different attacks. After about the third attack Haseo began to look bored and rushed at stew.

"And third!" He yelled, gripping stew's wrist. "Even if you did meet the requirements of the first two, my power and expertise are still far above your own!" He twisted the beast's arm and threw him to the floor; his hit points fell to 0 instantly. "I might consider your next challenge when you've maxed out your levels. Hell, I'd settle for you reaching 100. And grow a brain, will ya?"

"..."

"It's over!" the Commentator declared. "I don't know about you spectators out there, but I saw that outcome coming from a mile away! Hey! Haseo! Get back in this box and finish your commentary!"

Haseo warped out of the battle area, followed closely by stew luvr.


	8. Login008: Public Matters

A/N: Okay, this is kind of a set up chapter, a little something to let you all know what's going on with Canard in future chapters. My dad helped me a lot in this chapter as I have no corporate experience and didn't know how to make things flow.

* * *

Login008: Public Matters

Saeki Reiko, the player behind Pi, was a little tall for a woman but had a shapely figure. She wore a blue blazer with white blouse with khaki pants and her short, dark red hair was pulled back into a messy bun that flapped over as she kicked a man out of her office. He was Kasumi Tomonari, the man behind Kuhn. Wearing a light blue dress shirt, yellow tie and khaki slacks, he laughed and rubbed his lower back.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" She shouted, stomping her foot. "Quit flirting with regular players on Company time! I don't know what possessed Hiro-sama to let you come to HQ..."

He laughed again and pushed his sandy brown hair back, "I can't help it! It's who I am! Hmmm... 'Regular players'?" he grinned. "Does that mean you're fair game?" She heeled him in the stomach, "Omf! I gotta start remembering not to say things like that... Those heels hurt..."

"I would have thought you'd be a little different offline, but..."

Tomonari laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, his cheeks turning pink. A young woman probably a couple years younger than them with light colored hair approached them. "Um… Excuse me? Is this Hiro Takumi-san's office?"

"Why yes it is!" Tomonari jumped up with a pervy look on his face. "But he's much too young for you; I don't think I've seen you around here before, what's…!"

"Heel boy!" Reiko said and grabbed him by the collar; he arched his back and let his arms hang, making him look like a stunned puppy. She turned to the other woman. "What do you need?"

"The administrator board wants to see him."

'_What?' _"...He's inside."

"Thank you,"She headed inside the office; Reiko looked over at Tomonari as he stood.

"This can't be good."

Inside the office, the woman found Takumi, the player behind Yata, sitting at his desk. He was a boy seventeen years of age with short, neatly combed black hair and wearing a dark blue suit and glasses.

"I'll deal with those two in a minute," He said without looking up from his monitor.

"Huh?"

"Oh..." He finally turned from the computer and pulled his glasses off. "You're not here because Saeki-kun and Kasumi-kun are arguing in the hall again?"

"Uh, no. I'm here to tell you the administrator board wants to speak with you."

"What. Did they tell you concerning what?"

"No."

"...Very well, I'll go." He stood and walked out of the office and passed by Reiko and Tomonari. They were no longer fighting, but they seemed unsure what to do with themselves.

"Hiro-sama," Reiko began following him. "Is everything all right?"

"I'm not sure, if I'm still here in an hour I'll let you know." She pulled back, looking troubled. Tomonari pulled her over, implying to her to return to the office. Takumi stepped into an elevator and pushed one of the buttons.

'_Of all the...! I put my __life__ on the line to secure the safety of __their__ game. And now they're going to __fire__ me! Those ungrateful...!' _the elevator dinged and the door slid open. He walked out into a hall filled with desks in front of offices leading to a pair of double doors. One of the secretaries rose and approached him.

"Hiro-san? Right this way, the board is expecting you." She led him through the double doors, heading immediately back out and closing the door behind her. The room was a typical boardroom, with a long wooden table in the middle lined with chairs and a suit sitting in each one. The man at the head of the table spoke up.

"Hiro Takumi-san?"

"Yes?"

"As the head of the former Project GU and hence the most influence within the Company over that one player within 'The World', 'Haseo', we want you to do anything in your power to convince him to make his guild public. You may grant him any compensation he wishes within the boundaries of 'The World', but get it done."

'_You want __me__ to convince __Haseo__ to invite __regular__ players to join Canard?'_ "W-will that be all, sir?"

The man passed a sheet of paper down the line, "Saeki-san and Kasumi-san will continue to continue to work with you; here is a list of programmers available for transfer if needed. We will also be sending you a junior executive. That will be all."

Takumi bowed and left the room, walked across the hall and back into the elevator. When the door closed he thought to himself, _'Now I wish they __had__ fired me! Would have been a __lot__ less __painful__!'_

XXX

In The World, Haseo warped into Kestrel's AtHome. As he did, every eye turned to him, "What a warm welcome," he grinned.

"What are you doing here, 'Terror of Death'?" A well built adult male who didn't seem very happy to see Haseo spoke up.

"Your Guild Master summoned me."

"Fang!" Gabi called out from the top of the stairs. "You want to remain in this guild?"

Fang drew back; Gabi's face slid into a grin and he descended the stairs, "Haseo-kun!" he called out. All of his members drew back, as they all knew that even though they hated the Rogue before them, he was also a guest of their Guild Master at present.

"Beastman," Haseo returned the call.

"Come with me! :) "

"What'd you even call me here for, Beastman?"

"I said, come with me!" Gabi grinned and guided Haseo up the stairs and behind the throne to a room. Haseo had never really spent much time in Kestrel's AtHome, so he did not know this area was back here, let alone having been there. The room was circular and sort of resembled something like a training room in a Coliseum, long worn.

"What, so you wanted to show me these training grounds for your guild? Why would you think I'd even care?"

"This is actually my private room. I wanted to show you this..." An NPC exactly identical to Haseo appeared in the center of the room.

"What... is this?"

"Olive branch."

"I _love _these _stimulating _conversations with you," Haseo said sarcastically. "What do you mean, 'olive branch'?"

"I had this NPC copy of you made to keep my members occupied."

"You didn't go and do something stupid like making it significantly weaker than me, did you?"

"Don't know. CC Corp. made it. They used data from your Doppelganger... Try it out."

Haseo pulled out his scythe and swung it at the copy, which did the same. He grinned, "So far, so good." He continued to attack the NPC; it copied his every move. "The Devil!" Pulling a Tarot card from his person and showing its face to his copy and its MP began dwindling down, allowing him to begin attacking its HP and eventually defeating it.

"Pretty simple for me, then again, I'm the original and I've fought my Doppelganger before. Most of your members, except Negimaru, don't think to try and use items against me, why would they suddenly think of it fighting a copy of me? In any case, delete it."

"Why? We deserve a little morale boost too."

"Because, if you make it too strong like it is now, they'll eventually get bored and go back to hunting me anyway; if you make it too weak, they'll defeat it and then try to claim they defeated the real me. Get rid of it."

"Makes sense when you put it that way. I'll get rid of it, but you need something to replace it. I don't want my members getting bored."

"I understand you and boredom, but why do you want me to come up with the solution?"

"Many of my members are highly skilled, so they tire of fighting NPCs. They need someone like you to keep them occupied."

"But I'm too strong for them to challenge, hence the boredom you mentioned." Haseo drew back as he folded his arms. "Okay, I'll think of something."

Meanwhile back at the AtHome's entrance, Bordeaux warped in to find many of the members there with their weapons drawn and watching the stairs. She raised her eyebrow, "What's going on here?"

A male teen Steam Gunner turned to her, "I thought you were banned."

She blushed, "Gabi let me back in under probation."

"Oh. Well, your 'boyfriend' came here a few minutes ago, Gabi called him here. Nobody knows why."

"My '_boyfriend'_?" she turned redder.

"Haseo."

"He is _not_ my boyfriend! I wouldn't even call him a friend!"

"'Ex-Lover', whatever. So you're upset he dumped you for that 'Moon Tree' fanatic."

"Rivals, Mortal Enemies..."

"More like you're his punching bag..." Another member spoke up. "What are you? A masochist?"

Bordeaux ignored the comment, "...call us whatever you want, but we are _not_ 'lovers'! Where did you even get such an ass-brained idea?"

"When you were banned," the same member answered. "There was a rumor that the real reason was because the two of you were having a love affair."

She turned bright red, "An affair? Where the hell would people get an idea like _that_?"

"Well, in the Arena you were always talking about 'loving him to death' and 'loving him to pieces'."

"Tr-trash talk! If there are any real feelings there at all, it's merely the fact that I recognize his skills as a fighter...!"

"What's going on here?" Gabi said; he and Haseo walked down the stairs.

"Why'd you call the Terror of Death here, Gabi-sama?"

"Nothing you need concern yourself with," Gabi grinned. Haseo headed towards the Platform, figuring he no longer needed to be there and left leaving Gabi grinning, the members feeling more relaxed and Bordeaux looking disappointed that he didn't even notice her.

XXX

In the real world, Takumi, Tomonari, Reiko and seven others were sitting in a conference room. Takumi stood at the head of the table, "Effective immediately, you all work for me. Congratulations Kasumi, you're now _officially _a full-time employee. You've been informed of the situation, our new project; convince PC Haseo to make Canard a public guild."

"So you want us to do the impossible," Reiko couldn't help but grin. "Have you talked to _Haseo_ about this?"

Takumi adjusted his glasses, "You need to prepare the carrot before you set the trap. Besides, we haven't got all our pawns into play."

"Pawns?" Tomonari raised his eyebrow.

"Well, who would be an easier sell? Haseo? Or Atoli?"

"Good point. Atoli will agree to just about anything, especially if the idea of helping others is involved."

"Exactly."

"Excuse me!" A mid-set man with brown eyes and short black hair spoke up. He was smiling broadly. "But is there some special task for which you have summoned my team here? Will I be able to display my artistic prowess?"

"Yes, Matsuyama-san," Takumi answered. "You bring up a very valid question. It's part of my plan to convince Haseo to do this for us. As your personal PC, Piros, is a member of Canard, you know that the guild is currently standing at rank nine and the only thing keeping it from reaching ten is the number of members. And we want him to add members. So, I want your team to build a completely custom rank-ten AtHome to draw his attention. Your team will program it and then make any adjustments he asks for."

"I told you seven years ago you could call me Hiroshi. That still applies, you know."

"Yes, Hiroshi-san."

"But," Reiko spoke up again. "A custom AtHome isn't going to be enough to convince him. Boy likes his privacy."

"That's why the selling point isn't the AtHome itself, but the Guild Master's private room. Like the rest of the AtHome, it will be completely customized; in addition, its entrance will be rigged so that no one, not even employees of the Company like us, will be able to enter without his permission."

"You have all your ducks in a row as usual, Hiro-sama."

"Now, Watanabe-san..."

Watanabe was a redheaded man wearing a gray suit, "I've been informed of the situation by the board. I am here to keep track of the project's profits. I do not understand why I have to create a PC."

"From now on, you're going to have to think of this player as your boss and strive to understand him. You cannot treat this as any other account in the Company."

"Understood."

"Hey!" Hiroshi spoke up. "We should come up with a name for this mission!"

"How 'bout 'Impossible'?" Tomonari grinned.

"'Mission: Impossible'?" Reiko raised her eyebrows, looking at Tomonari sarcastically. "Ha. Ha."

"Can we get back to seriousness here?" Takumi cleared his throat, looking at his two assistants.

"The teenager is telling the twenty-somethings to get serious?" One of the programmers spoke up, raising his eyebrow. Tomonari leaned over to him.

"Believe it or not, this is a daily ritual."

"Tell me you're kidding."

"Nope! And you think this is bad? Wait till you meet Haseo. Picture Hiro-sempai with _human_ emotions mostly settling in the anger, angst and other general emo registers."

"We probably should..." Takumi said, continuing with the point Matsuyama brought up. "While it probably doesn't matter much within the Company, we can't have the word spreading within the game, Haseo has too many connections. But I don't think we need to call it 'Mission: Impossible'."

"'Operation Condor'!" Tomonari called out.

"Uhhhh..." Takumi massaged his temple. "I don't think that name really applies…"

"'Public Enemy Number One'?"

"Kasumi! Do you sit home and watch old American movies all day when you're not here? We are not the FBI!"

"'Operation Condor' was Chinese."

"The point is we're not naming this project after a movie!"

XXX

_Haseo-kun, please come to your guild's bike shop, there's something I want to talk to you about._  
_Zelkova_

"Now what does _Zelkova_ want?" Haseo mumbled to himself when he received the Short Mail. "Hm. Might as well head over…"

He returned to the Netslums and into the AtHome. When he got to the bike shop, Zelkova was waiting for him, sitting on the worktable.

"I think you should expand that Protections Service you started up. It's a good idea, but you only have five members. I may not entirely agree with your tactics, but they're the ones PKers respond to."

"Oh? That thing?" Haseo seemed a little distracted watching Death Grunty challenge Melo Grunty to a duel with a wrench. Melo merely attempted to eat the wrench, thinking it was a fish. "Matsu and I just sort of banded together as a PKK team with help from Atoli, Yousuke and Bekunai and slapped a name on it."

"Isn't that what you pretty much did with all of your units or branches or... what did you name them?"

"'Departments'. Hey, I'm still learning the Guild Master thing...!"

"I'm not criticizing you, if I were, I'd be one to talk, I just gave my units numbers!" Zelkova grinned. "Anyway, what I'm saying is that I think you've got a good idea started, but this game is simply too large for you and Matsu to handle alone. No matter how good PvP fighters you two are, you can't be everywhere at once."

"That sounds all well and good, but I simply don't have the resources to do something like that. The most I could expand it is by a few people; still not going to make much of a difference."

"Well, I have a feeling that's going to change soon."

"Huh?" Haseo responded distantly; he turned back to the Grunties and cringed watcing them begin doing a little dance. "Hey, Zelkova, by the way, I've been meaning to ask you. How did you manage to get Melo Grunty into Canard's AtHome?"

"Before I officially left the old Moon Tree, I copied his data. Once I came here to Canard I wrote it into the program."

"Hm. I was just wondering. It's kind of nice actually; Death Grunty's been so preoccupied playing with Melo that he hasn't called me a nose hair in three days."

XXX

"I think this place is wonderful, Yata-san!" Atoli smiled looking around her; she, Yata, Pi and Kuhn were in a large room resembling a throne room from the golden age of the Roman Empire with white marble pillars and extravagant tapestries and potted plants. At the end of the hall was a short flight of stairs leading to a reclining throne and behind it was a small door.

"That's great," Yata adjusted his glasses. "You think you can help us convince Haseo that?"

"Uehh?"

"We're offering this special AtHome template as bribery in order to convince him to open membership to Canard to the public."

"Good luck."

"That's precisely why we are asking you to help us. He'll laugh at me, but if you try to convince him, he'll take it seriously."

Atoli drew back a few seconds and blushed, after the initial shock her face slid back into a smile, "Heehee. Okay, I'll do my best!" _'This is going to take some work..."_

Meanwhile, Yata sent a Short Mail:

_Haseo, come to the area (Delta) Radiant Caesar's Empire._

"Okay, let's return to the entrance."

"Let's commence Operation: Persuasion!" Kuhn exclaimed and started humming 'Theme to Mission: Impossible'."

"We agreed you were going to stop doing that!" Pi growled. Atoli stood between them with a bemused look on her face.

"Settle down Pi," Yata said. "At least we got him to stop _calling_ it 'Mission: Impossible'."

As the four of them walked out to the entrance, which like the interior resembled a white marble palace of the Roman Empire; Haseo warped in at the Platform and looked around him.

"What is this place?" He looked around and eyed each of the persons in front of him. "And the fact the four of you are standing here on ceremony makes me feel uneasy."

"Haseo-san! Haseo-san!" Atoli called out, skipping up to him. "Yata-san said that CC Corp. will give us this AtHome if we get Canard up to rank 10!"

Haseo turned to Yata, "If we what?"

"Open your guild to the public."

"You mean, allow regular players to join?"

"Yes."

"Hell no!"

"At least hear him out, Haseo-san," Atoli came closer to him and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please?"

Haseo pulled away, his cheeks glowing and looked away, _'Dammit, why does she have to look so damn cute when she looks at me like that?' _"Fine! But I'm not making any promises! What exactly am I getting here? They don't really think I'd do something like this for an AtHome with custom graphics, do they?"

"The AtHome was my idea, not the Company's and the graphics aren't all that's custom about it."

"What else?"

"The Serpent of Lore. You will have access to its services for any reasonable use you wish. The area will be a part of this AtHome once it is yours. Until then, it will remain on Tartarga's Bridge, eliminating your need to go into town to get to it."

"Okay."

"Also, come with me."

Haseo glared and looked around him, upon seeing Atoli's pleading look again he blushed. "Okay." He followed Yata inside through to the throne room, the others followed. "The throne room?"

"Yes, but that's not really what I want to show you," Yata walked up the stairs to the small door behind the throne. "It's here."

The inside resembled a basic AtHome, "What's so special about this place?" Haseo asked.

"This is the private room you will be given if you do this. It doesn't look like much now, but you will be able to customize it however you want, we have a team of graphic programmers ready for your requests. All players, admin and GM PCs included, will need your permission to enter this room once it is yours and you can also set permissions for certain PCs from one time to unlimited."

"Now this grabs my attention! And besides, I'm starting to get the idea someone really wants me to do this, so... Sure. I'll do this, but we're setting up some sort of system to make sure the guild doesn't just fill up with fangirls!"

"Well, just remember, as the Guild Master, you do have the power to ban them."

"Oh yeah..."


	9. Login009: Misunderstanding

_A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! The credit for storyboarding goes to Dad. I came up with the idea and wrote it, but a lot of the pairings and basic run-a-long of the story was him._

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Login009: Misunderstanding

February 14; Chigusa was sitting at her desk, staring at her computer monitor. She was logged into 'The World' and had switched off from her M2D to monitor view. On the screen, Atoli was standing near Mac Anu's Save Shop, fretting. She opened up her member list.

"Hmmm..." She thought out loud, scrolling down the list. "Seems most everyone is on; a few people seem to be busy at the moment, including Haseo-san..." Her face fell into a frown staring at Haseo's name, the red icon labeled 'Busy' next to it. "I was hoping I could give him the 'handmade chocolate' I received from that email CC Corp. sent out for the Valentine's Day event. He probably won't care, but I still want to give it to him..."

She leaned back in her chair and took a sip from a glass of juice on her desk, closing the menu and tried to think of what to do when she heard a commotion from the doorway. Reaching for her controller, she used it to turn the camera in that direction. She jumped back and blushed when she saw Haseo run by at a full sprint .

"Ueeh? That was _Haseo-san_! Where is _he_ going? I gotta catch him!" She grabbed her M2D and put it on, switching to the proper view, unfortunately by that time, some other girls had begun chasing after him, obscuring her view. The other girls walked away from the Chaos Gate, having given up after he warped out, but Atoli walked towards it.

'_The other girls gave up,' _she giggled. _'But if I know Haseo-san like I think I do, he would have hastily warped to the first bookmark that stuck out at him... And seeing as he seems to take me with him everywhere, we have a pretty similar bookmark list..."_

She activated the Chaos Gate and selected the Bookmark menu, _'Arche Keoln Waterfall... It's the first Lost Ground to come up, so my guess would be that he went there.' _She selected Arche Keoln and warped out. Seconds later Retasu, a horned Lei Tribe Steam Gunner, and l4v3nd3r, a teen girl Macabre Dancer, ran in.

"Darn! He got away!" Retasu exclaimed.

"Why don't we just leave it at his guild's shop? I saw some other girls doing it, and we get another one free!" l4v3nd3r suggested.

"But... I wanted to give my handmade chocolate to him _personally_! If I take it over to the shop, it'll just get cycled out and given back to another person. But if I actually hand it to him, at least he'll know I gave one to him, even if he never remembers me afterwards..."

l4v3nd3r comforted her friend. Meanwhile in Arche Keoln Waterfall, Shino was sitting on the edge of the fallen bridge watching the scenery when Haseo warped in. Upon seeing her, he blushed and stepped back,"Ah! Sh-Shino!"

She remained sitting and turned around, smiling the same quiet smile as always upon seeing him, "Oh, hi. Imagine seeing you here."

He approached her, scratching the back of his head, "Yeah... With the Valentine's Day event today I've been receiving non-stop gifts of 'handmade' chocolate from my fangirls and 'groupies'. I finally decided I'd had it and ran here to get away from it all and hide for a little bit..."

She giggled, he looked at her curiously. She smiled again as she said, "Oh, nothing. It's just, when you said that, I thought to myself 'why didn't he just go to the Hulle Granz Cathedral and claim sanctuary?'"

He laughed as if he could not believe his ears as he sat down next to her, "I _suppose _that could work, but I'm already here and I'm _pretty _sure there are about five or six girls making camp near the Chaos Gate so they can ambush me and give me chocolate... I just sort of picked the first bookmark I saw."

Shino giggled again. Not seen by the other two, Atoli warped in. When she saw the other two together, she hid behind the Platform to watch.

"Oh, speaking of which," Shino turned to Haseo. "I've got something for you." She pulled out a small, round object that looked like a piece of milk chocolate and pressed it to his lips. Not sure what to do, he blushed and opened his mouth to let the candy slip in. Behind the Platform, Atoli turned bright red, crying, and warped back out.

"Wha...? Was...?" Haseo tried to speak but the shock locked his voice in his throat.

"...one of my gift chocolates." Shino guessed what he was trying to say and answered him, looking at him with a sort of maternal smile. After a few seconds she turned away and let her face fall and she turned to look off into the distance at the waterfall-like background of the area. "I'm... saving my handmade chocolate to give to Ovan when he comes back..." She turned back to Haseo and smiled again. "Hope you're not _too _disappointed."

He tried hiding the fact that he really was and shook his head, "Nah," he grinned. "I've got enough chocolate for a lifetime, and the day's only begun...! I started telling Gaspard to take them, arrange hours so girls run the shop all day... I'm actually kind of surprised, there are more girls in the shop department than I recall trying to get into mine."

"That's because when they look at all the work they have to do to get into your department, the less fanatical ones give up and find something else. Not all fangirls are 'rabid' as they say, it just seems that way to you because you're a well known player of 12 million and your PC design _is_ very easy on the female eye."

"Just the _female_ eye...?"

"Oh, well of course there's that one Epitaph User, Endrance was it? But didn't he say he was going to step down gracefully from trying to get your attention?"

"You think _Endrance_ is the _only_ gay guy _stalking_ me? Like you said! There are _12 million _players here! There's probably a good _chunk_ of homosexuals! Not to mention people like to play PCs of their _opposite_ sex! Add the fact that there are animal-based races in this game, I've got both genders of about... let's see there's Humans, two types of Tu Tribe, two or three types of Ya, and three types of Lei... eight to nine different _species_ chasing after me!"

She tried to stifle her laughter; he stopped to catch his breath, "Hooo. Well anyway, the chocolates are being given away at Shop Acorn as complementary gifts."

"Given away...?"

"Well, you know that they have a rarity of five stars, so, I can't sell them… And I can only hold so many... Might as well give other guys chances to get chocolate... Okay, so I run the risk of getting some back, but oh well. I've talked to Pi about getting the shop the proper controls."

Meanwhile in Mac Anu, Atoli warped in. The five or six girls making camp there (they really are! :D) perked up when she did. After seeing it was Atoli, all but one of them dropped their heads looking disappointed. Atoli warped back out.

"Hey." The one girl who hadn't dropped her head, a feline Tu Tribe member and possibly a member of the Medic Union, spoke up. "Wasn't that Atoli-chan? She looked sad; you think maybe Haseo-sama broke up with her?"

"No way!" Retasu exclaimed. "What kind of jerk would break up with his girlfriend on Valentine's Day! Haseo-sama would _never_ do something like that!"

"Then again," another girl spoke up, she was a Human teen. "If they did breakup, it would be advantageous to us! :D"

As the girls looked off imagining the possibilities, another person warped in; the girls began to get excited and headed towards the Gate. The new person was a thin, dark-haired adult Human male in gray and tan light armor named Lonely Wolf; his eyes brightened when he saw all the girls approaching him."Can this be? Is my ship finally coming in?"

The girls' expressions fell to disappointment and walked away from him; Lonely Wolf hung his head down, "Sigh... Every time. It's gotta be those so-called Ha Fangirls. That stupid Rogue is _always_ stealing the girls from us regular guys!"

In the Netslum, Atoli came running out into the city area from the Chaos Gate, when she entered the AtHome she (literally) ran into Endrance. He grabbed at her to keep her from falling, "My dear... what is wrong...?" Once she regained her balance, he let go of her and could see that she was crying.

"Haseo-san! H-he and, and Shino-san...!" She cried for about a minute then abruptly stopped. "Hey, you want to help me with something?"

"But, of course..."

On Tartarga's bridge, Pi was using the Serpent of Lore to monitor things. Two screens of interest that were brought up were Arche Keoln where Haseo and Shino were still at and talking casually and Canard's AtHome where Atoli and Endrance were. She seemed more interested in the latter. "What is she...?" she gasped and blushed. "She wouldn't...!"

XXX

"I wonder what Endrance needs to talk to us about?" Shino asked. She and Yata stood near the Chaos Gate of Breg Epona.

"I don't know..." he answered. "I cannot think of any reason for _him_ to call on you and myself... But at least it is my day off, so I don't exactly have to rush back to the Serpent of Lore or anything..."

"Maybe Endrance wants our help getting Haseo a Valentine's gift," she giggled at her own joke. "He may have vowed to see that he and Atoli are happy together, but everyone else can tell he's still just worshiping Haseo from afar."

He grinned, after a few seconds, he turned to her seriously, "How are you holding up lately?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean after the coma, right? I've finally regained the weight I lost while I was unconscious, my friends said I should have kept it off, but I didn't think it looked very healthy."

"How are your friends and family taking your decision to continue playing 'The World'?"

"Well..."

Pi warped in, interrupting Shino.

"Pi?" Yata addressed her.

"I'm sorry." Pi responded, folding her arms. "But Endrance will not be able to meet with you today."

"Huh?" Shino cocked her head.

"He has... been unavoidably detained." Pi grinned angrily "Now if you will excuse me, I have a _little lady_ to talk to." She warped back out, leaving the other two standing there.

"…You're not working today, right?" Shino asked. "Want to check out that 'bar' they just opened in Mac Anu's Alchemy District?"

XXX

In Canard's AtHome; Atoli was playing with Death and Melo Grunty. She smiled, looking at Death. "All I'm saying is that you'd look so cute with a little plume around your neck, just like Haseo-san...!"

"No! Oink!" Death shouted. "I don't want to wear such a stupid accessory! Oink! I'll be the embarrassment of the whole Grunty Tribe! Oink!"

"I'm with Atoli-chan. Ueyu," Melo responded, playing with a bottle of Potion. "It would look really cool on you! Ueyu."

"Oink!" Death growled, its temple throbbing. "You're all ganging up on me! Oink!"

Atoli giggled when Pi stormed in, "We need to talk, little lady!"

"Wh-what are you talking about...?" Atoli tried acting clueless and jumped back.

Pi repositioned to stamp her foot hard on the floor, "I know you sent Endrance to try and hook Yata-sama up with Shino!"

"Eeep!" Atoli screamed and jumped again. After she calmed down, she explained her situation.

"I see," Pi said. "You were just afraid Haseo's feelings for Shino would relapse and he would forget about you. I do not think that would actually happen, you've become someone very important to him, but I can see the legitimacy of your fear. Very well, I will help you to settle your peace of mind, but you are _not _hooking Yata-sama up with _anyone_!"

"Oh!" Atoli bowed. "Thank you!"

"This'll be fun! Ueyu!" Melo Grunty danced around Atoli and Pi's feet.

"This won't end well..." Death Grunty glared at Pi. "I'll tell. Oink!"

"I'll reformat you," she glared back.

It pointed at her_, _"I'm not scared of you! Oink! You old hag! Oink!"

"'Old hag'?" her temple throbbed. "...I haven't been called _that_ in a while... 'Old'... 'Not young,' and a lot of 'young? You're kidding me, right?' but not 'old hag'."

"He's just an NPC," Atoli scooped the Grunty up into her arms and held it up to her chest; it nuzzled her. "And he _is_ modeled after Haseo when he first became Canard's Guild Master, after all..."

"All the more incentive to reformat him," Pi sighed. "If we do it now, the computer will re-copy Haseo's personality and we will have a _slightly_ more pleasant Grunty around the AtHome." Atoli giggled. "Okay, now... Who should we try to get Shino together with?"

"Hey... What happened to Endrance?"

"He's tied up on the bridge."

"Y-you don't mean...?" Atoli began panicking, she pictured a chibi Pi with a sadistic expression on her face holding some rope with Tarvos behind her. She was chasing a chibi Endrance in a panicked bawl with Macha on the defense.

"No," Pi cocked her eyebrow, she seemed to be able to guess what Atoli was thinking. "Just what kind of person do you think I am, anyway? I think you're hanging in Haseo's shadow too much... No, I just wrote up a program for a Chinese puzzle box and told him if he could solve it, I'd give him something special he could give Haseo for Valentine's Day. He could be locked up on Tartarga's bridge for hours."

"Huh? I thought he made some sort of vow a while back that he wasn't going to peruse Haseo anymore..."

"That may have been what he said, but everybody can tell that he still loves Haseo; he's just admitting to the fact that in Haseo's eyes, he doesn't hold a candle to you and isn't going to waste his time hoping the boy will choose him."

Atoli blushed, turning her head away, _'If I mean so much to him, why was he flirting with Shino earlier?'_

"Oh. Pi-kun." Endrance walked in holding up a small, black, lacquered box. "Once I get the box open, then what do I do?"

Pi sweat-dropped, "I didn't think he'd get it that quickly. I should have made it harder..."

"Oh, Endrance," Atoli turned. "I don't think you need to worry about that thing anymore, Pi-san's agreed to help us, so now we're trying to decide who we could set Shino up with. Besides Yata, that was a failure."

Endrance thought for a moment, looking from Atoli to the box in his hands almost as if to debate which would make Haseo happier. After a moment, the box disappeared from his hands. "What about Taihaku...?"

"Hmmm... That could work, what do you think, Pi?"

"Well," she said. "Shino looks like a teenager, and Taihaku looks like a middle-aged man... It seems off."

"...Actually," Endrance spoke up. "I've heard him say he's in his late twenties."

"And Shino does seem to act older than her PC would suggest, I guess it would be worth a shot. I will go. Atoli, I'll set up the Serpent of Lore to track Shino's movements so you will be able to watch the progress of the arrangement from there. Now, what are we going to tell them in order to bring them to the area?"

"Hmmm..." Atoli shifted her weight.

"Maybe," Endrance suggested, "there could be a rumor that there is a rare item in that area? For the Valentine's Day event?"

"Oh!" Atoli exclaimed. "That would be perfect! There are always all kinds of rumors floating around 'The World' and the only real way to prove them true or false is to check them out for yourself!"

"That's true," Pi answered. "But what sort of item should it be?"

"...A Crimson VS card?" Atoli turned her head.

"Not really what we are looking for," Pi shook her head. "It should be something you can use in 'The World'."

"How about, a rose..." Endrance put in a second suggestion. "A rose with the ability to increase the recipient's affection for you?"

"That's good. It works with the Valentine's theme."

"But would Taihaku really get into looking for a _flower_?" Atoli pointed out. "I mean, he's kind of a combat-obsessed, eccentric shut-in... Like most of the male members of Icolo." She turned to Endrance. "No offense."

Endrnce didn't even hear her,"...What?"

'_Yeah,' _Pi sweat-dropped. _"And she follows the most eccentric of them all around like a puppy... And what does she mean by saying __male__? The difference between the guys and Alkaid is that she's more of a social butterfly than a shut-in.'_ "So what are you saying?"

"How about a really rare sword? Taihaku _is_ a known sword collector!"

"True, but Shino is a Harvest Cleric, like you, why would she be interested in a sword?"

Atoli thought like she was pondering very hard, "Hmmm... Oh! Well, of course any good party would need a healer! So, I'll switch my status to Busy to make Shino the only Cleric we know available!"

"Hmm," Pi smiled. "Good thinking."

Atoli paused for a few seconds while Chigusa set her status to 'Busy', "There! I now appear Busy to all players on my member list! :)"

Meanwhile, Shino and Yata walked into the Alchemy District of Mac Anu. The door opposite of the square from the DX Weapons Shop had always been nothing more than a decoration, but now there was a sign outside and the door allowed one to transport inside. Once inside, the place was dark and had a tavern look to it, almost like the one from the game's first version. As the two looked around, Shino spotted a familiar white and red boot from under a black cloak.

"Ha-"

"Switch to Whisper chat," Haseo interrupted her in Whisper.

"Haseo? What are _you _doing here?"

"It's the best hiding spot I've found so far." He noticed Yata was standing behind Shino. "Yata's with you too? Hm, are you two in a party?"

"Yeah."

"Add me, you guys can sit down." Shino and Yata sat down. Haseo's grin could be seen from under the cloak. "It's unusual to see you outside the Serpent of Lore, Yata."

"I have the day off today, Endrance called Shino and I to Breg Epona, then Pi showed up for some reason to say he canceled. The two of us decided to check out this tavern."

"You're an admin, wouldn't you already know about it?"

"Yes. But it's not very often that I get to experience areas like this firsthand. So, what are you doing here?"

"...It's served me as the best hiding spot in the game. After that one girl..." He nodded to Shino, indicating to her that she knew whom he was talking about. "After she found me in Arche Keoln, I did a little Lost Ground hopping, was caught in every one. Except Sin Ran Hati, apparently I can come and go in that area as I please now, even though its been closed to the public again. Probably because I've cleared the event before or something. Taihaku said he'd experienced the same thing... But it was getting irritating fighting monsters every two minutes. So, by the way, here, have five pieces of chocolate, both of you."

Haseo opened the Gift menu and gave both Shino and Yata five handmade chocolates each. "Regular areas and the Root Towns are not even worth trying, the Netslums creep me out unless I _have_ to be there, the entrances to Outer Areas I remember got fixed in the last update, and the Grunties keep kicking me out of Tartarga's Bridge and the AtHome for some reason..."

"Anyway," Shino giggled. "What's with the cloak?"

"Oh. Atoli and Tabby dragged me on this _weird_ quest the other day." Haseo tugged at the cloth. "This was the reward. It would make me stand out even more anywhere else, but in here, it's perfect. Don't ask me how it covered that plume of mine... They insisted I try it on when I got it and when I did, Gaspard and Piros told me they wanted to try it on too. Looked cute on Gaspard, but trust me, you do NOT want to see Piros in this thing!"

"So, what do you think of this place?" Yata asked.

"Is this off the record?"

"'Off the record'?" Shino asked.

Haseo used the question to explain his point, "You're not going to tell someone at CC Corp. and then they put what I said on the official site to promote the place are you?"

"You really think I would do that?"

"...Guess not. I kind of like it, first of all, for the ease of hiding out. And the menu's interesting, depending on what you order; one of your stats will increase for 4 hours. That's a nice perk."

"The menu is promotional for this week and next week only. After that it'll go to regular graphics."

"They should keep it this way. That you can tell the GMs."

"In any case..." Shino said looking around and smiling. "This would be a great place to go on a date."

Haseo shifted uncomfortably and pulled the cloak to make sure it was covering his face when he blushed. Shino smiled again; she heard the chirp indicating she received Short Mail. _'Huh? Why is Pi calling me now? "Meet me at Mac Anu's Chaos Gate in five minutes. Come prepared and don't be late."'_

"Excuse me," Shino said as she stood and bowed. "Someone's just messaged me and it sounds important."

"It isn't..."

"Haseo, if it were Ovan, I'd tell you. No, it's someone else."

"Oh."

"Is that you Shino?" Bo walked up. "Oh and Yata's here too, have you... Yes, Saku! I'll ask her! ...Have you seen Haseo-oniisan or Endrance today?"

A few teenage girls by the counter perked up at the mention of Haseo's name, Haseo jumped slightly and tugged on the cloth to make sure it was covering him.

Shino smiled, watching Haseo and turned back to Bo to responded in Whisper, "Well, I'm not sure about Endrance... I was told earlier he's busy, but I haven't seen him today. Haseo... He's the one in the black cloak behind me. Talk to him in Whisper. He's hiding. Anyway, I've got to go."

XXX

Five minutes and fifteen seconds later, Shino walked into Mac Anu's Dome, "You're late," Pi said.

"Haseo wasn't kidding when he said you were rigid about punctuality," Shino giggled.

"What was that?" Pi exclaimed, her temple throbbing.

"Nothing."

"Anyway, we're going to an area in Breg Epona," Pi added Shino to her party and the two warped out. Meanwhile in Breg Epona, Taihaku was standing at the Save Shop and turned from his business there as Pi and Shino warped in.

"I still don't understand why you have to take me to an area to tell me something," Shino said as they stepped to the side. "If you want privacy, we could just go to the AtHome. There may be more people now, but it's surprising how few of them actually spend any time in the AtHome. Most people just come in, do their business, and leave. Every once in a while you get one or two girls sitting on the stairs waiting to see Haseo, but if anyone else walks in they scatter like cockroaches. At least that's the case in my experience."

"I want to show you something, it's in the area. And about the fangirls, it may be in your experience because you and Atoli use the same model, they may be mistaking you for her and they don't want to talk to their main competition."

"Hee, true," Shino smiled.

Pi smirked and they approached the steps to the Chaos Gate, Taihaku turned to them, "Pi. What is this thing you wanted to show me?"

"Not here," she answered. "Let's go to the area." They warped into the area; it was a level 112 shrine-styled dungeon with a mission to reach the Beast Temple. Pi turned to the others, "Now, I bet the two of you are wondering why I called you here."

Shino nodded while Taihaku looked at Pi as if to say, "And...?" Pi continued, "I heard a rumor about a rare sword released specifically for the Valentine's Day event today. Taihaku, as a known sword collector, I figured you might be interested and invited you."

"Oh? Really now?" Taihaku began to show some interest.

"And Shino, I invited you because Atoli's busy and we would need a Harvest Cleric."

"...Okay," Shino looked suspicious. _'Isn't she an administrator? A simple rumor like this she should have the answer to... Meh. Maybe she's just using the cover story because of Taihaku...'_

"Let's get going," Pi said. leading them towards the Beast Temple. After a while, she heard the chime indicating she had gotten Short Mail from Atoli...

_Okay it's time. Tell your story to get out of there and warp out at the nearest Platform._

"Understood," she responded, then turning to the others._ "_Excuse me, there is some business that has come up I must attend to. I will warp back but you two go on ahead." She used a Return Feather to warp back to the last Platform they had passed.

"What is going on here...?" Shino said suspiciously.

'_I get it,' _Taihaku thought to himself. _'This was supposed to be some sort of matchmaking service…'_ He turned to Shino. "I'm sorry young lady, but I'm not interested." He also used a Return Feather to leave the area leaving Shino bemused.

"What...? Not interested in what?"


	10. Login010: Matchmaker, Matchmaker

Login010: Matchmaker, Matchmaker

_A/N: Ueeh! I'm posting this up a lot later than I'd hoped... I had it mostly done, but I found a new MMO and have been working on the next couple chapters after this so I kinda forgot about posting this one...! (sweat) But anyway, even though it's late, I hope everyone had a good Valentine's, but whether it was romantic or lonely I hope you enjoy the conclusion of the antics from the .hack/GU crew!_

"How are things progressing?" Pi asked as returned to Tartarga's bridge to find Endrance watching Atoli staring at the Serpent of Lore's screen.

"..." Atoli looked upset.

"Taihaku," Endrance spoke up. "Caught on to our plan and has already left..."

Pi sighed and folded her arms, "Well then. Now what?"

"I could..." Atoli spoke up. "I could talk Zelkova-dono into joining Shin-san and I to see something."

"How old is Zelkova, anyway? Yata said his hacking skills were comparable with his and my own, but that really doesn't say anything about his age..."

"Actually, I don't know, he never talks about himself offline... Haseo-san keeps asking me the same thing."

"Hmm..."

"So," Endrance spoke up. "Where are we going with this...? Do we, try Zelkova or..."

"I think we should take this more methodically," Pi shifted her weight. "Consider Shino's type. Now judging by the fact that the two guys we know she likes are Haseo and Ovan, it would be a good guess to say she likes a man who is strong and a good leader. Now, seeing as Ovan is missing and Haseo is the one you are trying to get her _away_ from, who do you think would make a good match for her?"

"Zelkova-dono's a good leader," Atoli injected. "The incident-"

"I do not doubt that, I just don't think parts of Zelkova's personality really fit what Shino looks for in a man."

"I guess you're right..."

"How about... Matsu?" Endrance suggested.

"Now you are getting on the right track, Matsu is hotheaded like Haseo," Pi grinned and Atoli giggled. "But she prefers Ovan; I guess we should look more for the strong, _silent_ type?"

"Well," Atoli snorted. "Taihaku-san's already said he's not interested. Why don't we just give Matsu-kun a shot? With his personality, I don't think he'd suspect anything if I'm the one to do the hook up. I could tell them I want to show them something; this way there will be no suspicion of why there are two Harvest Clerics in a party of three."

"Now, we are going to have to change our cover story or Shino will catch onto us."

"We could go with Endrance-san's rose idea and add that a strong monster guards it in order to draw Matsu-kun's interest."

"Hm. Sounds good. But Matsu will undoubtedly ask you why you invited him instead of Haseo for something like this. He knows just as well as you do that that is the sort of thing that boy lives for. Not to mention we still have the two Harvest Clerics problem..."

"Well..."

"Be vague," Endrance spoke up again. "Get rid of the monster idea and don't tell them anything until they're in the area."

XXX

'_Something really strange is going on here.'_ Shino looked up at the sky from where she was sitting on the steps of Dol Donna. '_This is the third time today I've been asked to come to an area with someone. Then again, Atoli said there was something she wanted to show me, it could be completely unrelated to what Pi or Endrance were doing...'_

She turned her attention to the Chaos Gate as she heard Atoli and Matsu's voices arguing as they warped in, "C'mon Atoli!" Matsu exclaimed. "What's so important about this area that you had to drag me out of the Arena?"

"I heard there was a really rare special item in this area for Valentine's Day!"

"And I care because...?" he mumbled. "Oh well, at least I'll get to hang out with you without pissing Haseo off."

"What?"

Not realizing he'd said that aloud quickly drew back and sweat-dropped waving his hands in front of him, "Oh, nothing!"

"Mm-kay," Atoli turned to her "twin". "Oh! Shino-san! There you are!" Shino smiled and waved; Atoli turned back to Matsu. "I hope you don't mind, I've also invited Shino to join us."

"Two Harvest Clerics and an Adept Rouge?" He cocked his brow. "Okay, ignoring the bad unintentional pun just there, isn't this party a little unbalanced?"

"Right Clerics, wrong Rogue," Shino commented.

'_And doesn't that just make me sad? And a little horny.' _This time he remembered to keep is internal dialogue internal.

"The area level is pretty low," Atoli stated. "So I don't think it'll really matter... And I thought Shino might be interested in this item too!"

"Whaaatever..." Matsu looked off and rolled his eyes.

Atoli ignored his sarcasm, "Anyway, let's get going! :D" She added Shino to her party and they warped to the area; it is a level 76 desert field with a Boss Mission. As soon as they got there, she began running up ahead. "This way! It's over this way!"

'_I think I know what's going on.' _Shino thought, trying to catch up. "Atoli? Are you or is somebody else trying to pair me off with someone for some reason?"

Atoli stopped dead in her tracks and turned to Shino nervously, "Wh-what makes you say that?"

"Well, first Endrance calls me out, but doesn't show up. Next Pi shows up claiming to be in Endrance's place, but then she leaves and Taihaku makes some strange comment to me about not being interested. Now you call me here and start acting strangely like Pi was earlier... What's going on?"

Atoli hesitated, "I was, at Arche Keoln earlier..."

"Are you trying to tell me you saw Haseo and I together?"

Atoli nodded slowly and began tearing up, "You gave him your handmade chocolate..."

"Ohhhh, Atoli, that was a _gift _chocolate."

"Huh? _Gift _chocolate...?"

"Just so you know, I like Ovan. _Haseo_ had a crush on _me_, I don't have any feelings for him. Well, I shouldn't say that, but I feel more like a big sister or a mother to him. I just sort of flirted with him to keep his interest in the Twilight Brigade because Ovan needed him to cure the AIDA from his arm."

"Oh."

Shino smiled and laughed a little, "To be quite honest, I did the same thing with _Tabby_. Their initial login was at the same time, so it was hard to tell right away which one was the player we needed, though I think Ovan had a feeling because you Epitaph Users are naturally drawn to each other. And it threw TaN off our scent for a while, so we just recruited both of them... And he got a crush on me. So did she... And she kept asking me about my non-existent boyfriend... That was kind of weird..."

"Hm."

"Hey, you remember the day the three of us were at the Hulle Granz Cathedral? When you ran out, he began to follow you, but stopped short worrying about me. I asked him if he wanted to reform the Brigade with me and begin searching for Ovan; it was kind of my way of asking him if he chose you or me. He was hesitant at first, but I told him to be honest with himself... That's when he ran out to catch you."

Atoli drew back and turned bright red, "H-he never told me... that..." _'That's why he's been acting so different since then...!'_

"I'm really not surprised to hear that," Shino giggled. "His personality _is_ a lethal combination of shyness and stubbornness," Atoli joined her in a laugh. "Anyway... Matchmaking. Especially with it being Valentine's Day, it sounds like fun! Under the condition you don't try to pair _me_ up with anyone else, if you plan to continue, I think I'll join you."

Atoli blinked a couple times, baffled, "Huh?" but her perplexed look was soon replaced by a smile. "Okay!"

"Hey!" Matsu came storming up. "Doesn't anyone remember that _I'm_ in this scene too? Now where is this 'special' item that was so important that Atoli had to drag me out of the Arena where I was winning?"

"I picked you up out of the spectator stands. What do you mean you were 'winning'?"

"I was betting GP and items with a few friends on the outcome of the matches. And I was on a mad winning streak when you pulled me out of there! And one of the guys had just put an Emperor's Armor into the pool! An _Emperor's _Armor!"

Shino pointed off into the distance, "Do you need numbers or types? There's a Ganesha over there, go kick it."

She and Atoli giggled; Matsu screamed, "Augh! How the hell does Haseo put _up_ with you two? Let alone _love_ you!

"L-lo-love?" Atoli's face shone bright as a strawberry.

"We're cute," Shino smirked.

"Arrrggh!" Matsu stomped off to the Platform and warped out.

When Atoli and Shino walked onto Tartarga's bridge, Pi turned to them, "So, your fear turned out to be just a misunderstanding."

"Yeah, but it really was fun!" Atoli smiled. "The matchmaking part anyway. And if we decide to continue this, Shino-san has offered to join us!"

"I wouldn't mind continuing this," Endrance responded.

"I really should stay here to monitor things," Pi folded her arms and shifted her weight. "It's Yata-sama's day off, so the duty of running the Serpent of Lore falls to me." Her pupils narrowed. "Neither one of us trusts Kuhn alone in a room that allows him to see anything happening in 'The World' anywhere at any time..."

Atoli and Shino giggled, but Endrance seemed lost; he usually didn't understand much that didn't pertain to love, beauty or Haseo (and while matchmaking does fall under 'love' in his mind, horny idiots don't).

"But I could watch the prospective couples as part of my work."

"So how should we go about this?" Shino asked.

"We could start out by looking through the Root Towns," Atoli suggested. "And looking for people who look lonely! And then match them up and 'send' them out on 'blind dates'! :)"

"Not the most methodical approach," Pi commented. "But it could work..."

Over the next couple of hours Atoli, Pi, Shino and Endrance undertook the plan, trying to pair up anyone they could find. At first no one was really aware of the situation and disregarded it as an isolated incident. But as the day wore on, they started to realize the pattern. Some people believed it may be part of the Valentine's event and began sending complaints to CC Corp.

These were later forwarded to Yata; others recognized who Atoli and Shino were and also sent the company e-mails, but with a note for them to tell Haseo to keep his girlfriends under control. After a while, Yata and Haseo got tired of the mails and walked into Mac Anu's Central District from the Dome.

"I don't like being out here," Haseo said, glaring. He was still wearing the cloak from before, but the hood was pulled down and it was hanging on his shoulders.

"But we have to find them," Yata adjusted his glasses. "I can't take getting anymore emails. And the higher ups are riding my back because Pi's apparently using the Serpent of Lore for this."

Yata looked over; Haseo looked bemused and was holding about five different colored and shaped boxes of chocolate in his hands. He watched two girls run off towards the Harbor, waving to him.

"Are you listening?"

Haseo turned back, tossing the candy in the air. About three guys ran up to pick up the items where they landed. "This is why I didn't want to come! Why can't we just lure them into the Netslums? They'll get there eventually anyway if they're using the Serpent of Lore! Besides, it's weird seeing you not in there, you're almost like a permanent fixture..."

Yata glared; Pi and Atoli turned the corner from the Alchemy District, "There they are." He began walking towards them while Haseo stayed in place.

"Atoli!" He Whispered sternly to her. She looked around for him in response.

"What is wrong, Atoli?" Pi asked.

"Stairs!" Haseo spoke again. Atoli looked up at the stairs where she saw him with his arms folded and glaring at her, she blushed as the rest of her face turned ashen.

"Atoli?" Pi called to her again.

"Haseo-san... Stairs. ...Mad." Atoli was trying to point Pi to where she was indicating without moving or making eye contact with Haseo. Pi looked up at the stairs, but before she could find Haseo, Yata caught up to them.

"Pi! What is going on?" he shouted. "I'm receiving several complaints from players about you, Atoli, Endrance and Shino playing some sort of matchmaker game!" He switched to Whisper. "Not to mention the board's yelling at me because apparently you're using the Serpent of Lore for _personal use_!"

Pi sweat-dropped and turned away; Haseo caught up with them. "What's _this _I hear about you playing _matchmaker_, Atoli?" Atoli jumped back at his shouting. "You know, it's hard enough hiding out from all my fangirls without 'You have new mail' flashing on my screen every thirty seconds!"

"Haseo," Pi turned to him. "If this is so much trouble for you, why do you not just log out for the day?"

His face flushed, "Uh...!" He looked away to hide his face. "I-I... I'm waiting for something, okay?"

Pi and Yata looked over at Haseo; he was trying to avoid looking at Atoli and blushing. She seemed unaware of the situation.

"Ah-ha..." Yata grinned and adjusted his glasses again.

"What 'ah-ha'?" Haseo's face flushed deeper. "No 'ah-ha'! You had no reason to say 'ah-ha'!"

"Then what are you getting so defensive for?"

"Yata-sama," Pi smirked. "I don't believe you've met... This is Haseo, the most easily riled up teenage boy in the universe." Haseo glared in response.

"Don't change the subject, Pi," Yata said flatly.

"Grrr," Haseo growled. "That's it! I officially relocate this intervention to the AtHome!" He grabbed onto Atoli's wrist and started pulling her off with him towards the Dome. "You're coming with me!"

"When did this become an intervention?" Yata said in the background. "It's more of a confrontation."

Atoli blushed, tripping over her feet trying to keep up with Haseo, "O-okay...!"

Once the teenagers had left, Pi spoke up again. "That's amazing dedication. He's remained logged on all day, through that barrage of unwanted attention, waiting for the young lady to give him her chocolate."

"I said don't change the subject."

XXX

In Canard's AtHome, Haseo pulled Atoli to the center of the room so they were facing each other, the Grunties could not be seen anywhere and he shooed out a couple of people who seemed to be new to the guild. "What reason would you have for doing this, Atoli?"

"Would you believe me if I said I was bored...?" She said, sweat-dropping and trying to look innocent. She looked down and blushed, she did not want to look him in the face and noticed that he was still holding onto her wrist.

He thought of how to respond to that and let his hand drop, "Maybe... Why are Shino, Endrance and Pi doing it with you?"

"They were bored, too?" She tried not to look guilty.

"I'd believe that for you and Shino, but you'll have to come up with a different excuse for Pi and Endrance."

"Well, Endrance-san I just sort of asked him to help me and he did."

"I'll buy that. He sort of made a vow to me a while ago saying that since I'm not attracted to men, he would just do anything to make sure you and I are 'happy together'." She blushed; he grinned. "Now what is Pi's excuse?"

"M-morbid curiosity?" she asked. Her question was met with silence and she looked up. He was looking at her with an expression that showed that he was not sure whether he was glaring and wanted to get angry at her, or grinning and wanted to laugh at how ridiculously see-through her lies were. "What's wrong?"

"...Nothing," he said, stifling laughter. "I was just thinking, six months ago, I would have yelled my _ass _off at you for acting like this. But now..." he laughed again. "Now I find it so ridiculously adorable that you actually think you have me fooled that I don't know how to react."

"Huh?" she blushed. "Wh-what do you mean?"

He pulled her face to meet his, he was trying to look serious, but it just came out as a smirk, "Atoli, do you really think I'm stupid? I can tell you're lying to me."

"How...?"

"Well for starters, you won't look at me."

"Well..." Her cheeks flushed deeper and she adverted her eyes. "There are other reasons for _that_..."

"And second." He tried to hide his own cheeks. "You keep answering my questions with another question," She laughed nervously. "So, what's _really_ going on?"

"Part of it really _is_ boredom!"

"Uh-huh," he grinned. "And the _other_ part?"

"Uhhh..." She ran out of the room.

"Atoli...! Uh..." He blushed lightly and turned to the eastern steps. He was surprised to see that Shino had been there the entire time playing with Death Grunty. "Would _you_ mind explaining this? Yata's working with Pi, but apparently she keeps changing the subject, Atoli's claiming boredom, and we can't seem to track Endrance down. We even got Saku to help..." He shuddered. "Now I have to convince a regular member to be her slave for the next week..."

"You really want the truth?" Shino closed her eyes.

"Uh... yeah?"

"Atoli saw the two of us at Arche Keoln and misinterpreted the situation. She recruited Endrance to try and hook me up with Yata in fear that your feelings for me would relapse and you'd leave her."

"I, uh..."

"Apparently, trying to pair me up with _Yata_ didn't sit too well with Pi, so that's how _she_ got involved. And by the time I finally figured out what was going on, we all decided we'd had so much fun with this that we decided to try playing matchmaker with anybody and everybody."

He sweat-dropped, "...So you're telling me that this whole thing started because of that _gift chocolate_ you gave me earlier?"

"Essentially, yes," she answered. He looked away, unsure if he should be the one embarrassed in this situation. "The two of you have been waiting for something all day; you should just follow her. And if there's anything you want to say to her, just say it. Don't worry about how she'll respond."

He blushed and stood awkwardly for a few seconds, then nodded and walked out of the AtHome.

XXX

The Dead World of Indieglut Lugh, Atoli warped in followed closely by Haseo. "Indieglut Lugh?" he asked, looking around. "What are we doing here?"

"I-I wanted to bring you here for something..."

"But... why here?"

She looked away, "...This was the first Lost Ground we went to, together."

"Yeah... That's right. You 'heard' the Sign on the back wall of Beast's Temple of some area and when we got there we were transported here." He blushed and looked up at the cave ceiling. When they got to the lake, she blushed and stepped in front of him, holding out her hands.

"I... I wanted to give you this!" she said. He looked down and saw she was holding a small, pink box of handmade chocolate with a blue ribbon on top. He blushed and looked at her softly, reaching for the box. She blushed deeper and looked up; he pulled it to his chest. When he noticed she was watching, he turned a pinch brighter and turned away, pulling the box down.

"A-anyway..." He scratched the back of his head as he headed back to the Platform. "Shall we get going?"

She stood awkwardly, trying to figure out how to interpret his actions. After a brief pause she brushed it off and began following him, "Okay!"

She ran up to him and smiled to his face, he turned away and blushed; she giggled, _**'**__I'm so glad he wasn't too mad at me after all...'_

He began to activate the Platform when he suddenly stopped and pulled away, heading back towards the tree and avoiding her gaze_._

"Ha... Haseo-san?" She tried to get his attention as she followed, even though the lighting in the area wasn't very bright, she could still see that he was blushing. He noticed her and turned away.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I..." He continued to turn his gaze away as he spoke softly. "I want to meet you... offline."

Her face glowed bright red; those were the last words she expected to hear from him. "Off... Offline...?" But her face soon fell into distraught and she looked down. "I told you before, if you met me offline... I'd probably just bore you to death."

"Let me make those kind of decisions for myself, will ya? Don't you want to meet _me_ offline?"

She knelt to the ground and looked into the water, trying to delay her answer as long as possible; she wasn't even sure how to respond. She wanted to meet _him_ more than anything, but at the same time she was afraid of what he'd think of _her_ if they met. She could see he was getting impatient with her... Or maybe was it anxiety from the fact that the two of them had sat there in silence for three minutes after he asked the question?

"Sorry." He said as he turned back to the Platform. "Never mind. Forget I asked."

As he was about to leave, she spoke up quietly, "Where do you want to meet?"

He hid his smile before he turned around, "I don't know, you told me once you live in Chiba right? Anything interesting there?"

"I don't know... Hey, where do you live again?"

"Tokyo."

Her eyes lit up, "Ohhh! I've always wanted to go to Tokyo! Would it be possible for us to just meet at the station and go somewhere from there?"

"Heh. Sure. How's this Sunday for you?"

"I-I don't think I'm doing anything..."

"Okay, I'll check out some things once I log out and email you when I come up with something. That sound good to you?" She nodded in response. "...By the way, what's your real name?"

"Huh? Oh. I-it's Chigusa. Kusaka Chigusa."

He smiled as he offered his hand out to help her up, "I'm Misaki Ryou. Well, I look forward to meeting you, Chigusa-san."

She blushed at him addressing her by her real name and took his hand as they went back to the Platform and returned to town.

XXX

"So, Atoli," Shino spoke up; she, Atoli, Tabby and Alkaid were sitting on the floor in the center of Canard's AtHome, chatting. "Were you finally able to give Haseo your 'handmade chocolate'?"

"Y-yeah," Atoli nodded nervously.

"I gave him mine too!" Alkaid shouted in the background.

"I gave mine to Shino-chan!" Tabby exclaimed as she grinned and glompped Shino.

Shino shooed Tabby off her as she continued to converse with Atoli, "How'd it go?"

"He seemed distracted at the time." Alkaid continued talking, not realizing that Shino wasn't paying attention to her. "But he gave more attention to me than most of the other girls I saw giving him chocolate, that's a good sign..."

"The girls I saw giving him chocolate he was running _away_ from," Tabby responded to Alkaid, looking disappointed that Shino didn't want to cuddle. "He probably paid _you_ attention because you're friends. I gave him a piece of gift chocolate, he smiled at me and said it was only the third piece of that type he'd received all day."

Meanwhile, the two Clerics were actually still talking. Atoli blushed as she nodded and said quietly, "...We're going to be meeting this Sunday."

"Meeting?" Alkaid stopped short and jumped to her feet. "You don't mean... You mean _offline_?" Atoli nodded nervously. Alkaid just stood there, not sure whether to cry or get mad.

Meanwhile, Tabby was not really paying attention to the conversation at hand and was just sort of talking to herself aloud, "I wonder who the first girl to give him friendship chocolate was? I know the second was from Bo. ...I bet it was Shino! She's so nice! :)"

Shino and Atoli looked at each other and blushed; Alkaid stopped in the midst of jumping to tackle Atoli and looked between them. Tabby looked between the other three, "Was there something I said?"

XXX

The next day at CC Corp.; Tomonari walked into the office, Reiko was sitting at her desk looking over a mountain of paperwork.

"Saeki-sempai...!" he grinned.

"You're late," she responded nonchalantly. "You're a full-time employee now, you better get used to coming in earlier."

"I'm not late according to the clock downstairs!" he continued to beam. "Now, what's this I hear about you getting in trouble for _matchmaking_ yesterday?"

She was caught by surprise and her cheeks burned deep red; she turned to him "Huh...!" she just as soon turned away. "It's none of your concern!"

"Oh, c'mon." He sat back in the chair by the desk next to her which was evidently his own and swirled it a little. "I'll find out eventually...! I already know it had something to do with Atoli. Might as well hear it from you first. Or would you rather I piece it together from the rumor boards?"

She let out a light groan as she knew he was right, there probably was at least one thread on the forums pertaining to what she and the others had done the previous day but that still did not mean she was going to tell him a thing, "Huh...? But how do you know Atoli was involved?"

"'I hear Saeki-san's in trouble for messing up the Valentine's event yesterday,' 'yeah, I heard that too, and the girlfriend of that one Arena Emperor everyone's always fussing about was also involved,' 'hey, Kasumi! You work with Saeki, don't you? What have you heard?'" He grinned again. "I heard that passing the water cooler on my way to clock in."

"Oh great," she said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "Just what we need; water cooler gossip to give you more fuel to make Haseo even angrier. I'm still not telling you."

"That had nothing to do with him, except his connections to Atoli."

"Yes. But I also know that you will twist what you heard around just to make him angry."

"True," he continued to smile contently. "But anyway... If I get you coffee, will you tell me?"

"...Fine! You know how I like it."

"Right," he stood. "Black with one packet of zero-calorie sweetener."

He excitedly ran out and retrieved the coffee. After she explained everything to him...

"What? _Seriously_? Aw man, now I _really_ wish I hadn't had to work my other job last night! Dammit! It was my last day, why didn't I just skip it? And you're really telling me that this whole thing started because Atoli saw Shino give Haseo chocolate and assumed the worst?"

She sipped from her coffee and watched him to the floor in hysterics and rolled her eyes once again, "I knew I shouldn't have told you..." He moved to his desk and turned on his computer. "Now what are you doing?"

"I'm logging in. If Haseo's on, I need to give him his daily abuse regarding yesterday's events."

Trying to ignore his antics, she turned back to her paperwork, setting the Styrofoam cup on a small patch of desk that was actually not covered in paper. "Ah. So if Kuhn shows up on Tartarga's bridge in a bloody mess, I'll know what happened?"

"Hey!"

"Get to work! Hiro-sama has some paperwork for _you _to do as well. Besides, it's nine fifteen in the morning. He's probably at school right now."

"Oh. Right. 'As well'? You mean that's what that tsunami reenactment on your desk is...?"

"Get to work!"


	11. Login011: O Fateful Meeting

_A/N: Hello! :) Sorry I haven't updated in a long while, but I haven't forgotten about this story. On the contrary, the reason it has taken so long is a combination of a few writer's blocks, figuring out the balance of interpretation for Chigusa's parents for this chapter and still maintaining the comedic balance of the story proved to be harder than I expected (sweat), and I've also started college! And the fact that my dad is almost never home anymore… But we finally came up with a good system to get him to proofread the chapters even when he's miles away, so yay._

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Login011: O Fateful Meeting

"Haseo-san..." Atoli found Haseo playing around with things in Canard's Bike Shop. Actually, it looked more like he was yelling at Death Grunty to stop insulting him long enough for him to use the shop's services. "W-we have to talk about this Sunday."

He jumped a little. It had been a couple days since he had asked to meet her offline. They had already made plans to meet for lunch at a shopping district near his apartment so he wasn't expecting her to bring the subject up again, and if so, through e-mail or on the phone, most certainly not in The World. "What do you want to talk about?"

She bowed sharply, "I'm sorry! But I had to tell my parents! They would never have let me travel to Tokyo by myself without telling them what I was doing!"

"Atoli slow down! What are you talking about?"

"My parents won't let me meet you unless they come with..."

"That's all? I don't mind if they feel better chaperoning the meeting, they just want to make sure I'm not really an axe murderer, right?"

"'That's _all'_? That's not even the _half_ of it! They... They're thinking of this as... as a..." She turned bright red and fidgeted nervously.

"As a what?"

"...A-a prospective marriage meeting."

He turned beet red, "A _what_?"

"Uh-huh, and they're going to want to meet your parents and see where you live and, and know everything about you and... oh dear... You don't live with your parents anymore, do you?"

"No."

"That's going to be a problem right there..."

"Atoli, don't worry. I can..." He shuddered as if he already did not like the sound of his own suggestion. "I can just call my mom and see if we can just have our lunch meeting moved to their house instead of the restaurant."

"Can you stop calling it a 'lunch meeting'? We're not business associates...!"

"Well, what _would_ you call it?" He snapped a little, his face flushing a little.

She stepped back. She did not want to be as presumptuous as to use the word "date", but "meeting" sounded so rigid and cold and she could not think of anything else.

"Anyway..." He coughed, not wanting to dwell on the subject. "I guess I'll log out and call my mom. Here. You seem to have some sort of magic touch with Death Grunty, I finally beat Matsu on one of the bike courses and I want to test out the new part I got! But the pig's being a pain in the ass, as usual..."

"Oink! Shut up, you nose hair!"

"Make me."

She giggled and knelt down to Death's eye level, "Hey, Death Grunty. You want to put this part on Haseo's steam bike for me?"

Death Grunty's eyes lit up and looked up at Atoli, completely forgetting that Haseo had been asking the same of it just a moment before "For you, Atoli, I would do anything! Oink!"

Haseo blushed and chuckled, shaking his head; blue rings surrounded him and he logged out. Ryou pulled off his M2D, setting it on the desk, and pushed his hair back with his fingers to fix it. He reached over to pick up his cell phone. A feeling of dread came over him as he dialed the number.

'_I just __know__ I'm going to regret this...!' _He thought, pulling the phone up to his ear and listening for the ring.

"Hello? Misaki Residence." His mother's soft but chipper voice came from the other end and Ryou froze.

'_Aw dammit! Mom just __had__ to be the one to answer the phone, __didn't__ she? If I were calling about anything else, one of the servants or Dad would have picked up, but nuuuuu, because I want to discuss something concerning a girl, Mom had to pick up! I can't! I can't do this!' _His mind flashed an image of Atoli smiling at him and he flushed. "Hahh..." _'But, I also really want to meet the girl behind that PC…'_

"Hello?" Mrs. Misaki called out again. "Ryou,-chan I know it's you, the caller ID displayed your cell number and I can hear you breathing."

Slowly, he spoke up, "...Hello, Mother."

"Oh! Ryou-chan! I'm so glad you called! Listen. Your father just hired a new supervisor in the engineering department who has the cutest daughter about your age. Why don't I arrange for you to meet her this Sunday?"

'_I knew it...!' _Ryou banged his head on his desk. "Actually, I already have plans this Sunday ...and that's what I called to talk to you about."

"Oh? Really? What is it, son?"

"Uhh..." '_No! No! No! I can't! I can't tell my mother, aka "The Matchmaking Queen of Honshu", that I want to use their house to host an offline meeting between me and a girl my age! And our parents including the girl's, who are __already__ viewing this as an opportunity to marry their daughter off!'_

"Ryou? Are you okay? You're breathing funny again."

"Um... Let me put it this way, I made plans to meet a friend of mine from a net game offline this Sunday and their parents... I just thought it would be best if we could all just meet at yours and Dad's place?"

"...Are you trying to rephrase your sentence to avoid telling me that this friend is a _girl_?" Her sly grin could be heard through her voice.

'_Damn.' _"Y-yes..."

"Kyaaaa!" she squealed. "So you've finally met yourself a girl and are bringing her home to meet your parents and vice versa? Of course! I would be more than happy to play the gracious hostess!"

He cried, _'Kill me...!'_

XXX

Sunday morning. Ryou, wearing an olive green long coat with sandy-colored faux fur lining on the hood, approached his parents' estate. It was a two story, L-shaped building with large windows, red roof, cream colored siding and the leg extending out from the right side. Surrounded by a cream plaster wall matching the color of the siding and closed off by an iron gate, a stone path led up to the wooden front door that was relatively in the center, but a little to the right. To the left of the path was a bamboo "wall" adorned by small, arranged stones; to the right were a small pond and a stone lantern. He rang the bell at the gate.

"Who is it?" The voice of a woman with a Kansai accent came through the intercom.

"Hello Kiku-san. It's Ryou."

"Oh! Ryou-bocchan! It's so nice ta hear from you! Are your parents expecting you this early? Isn't that 'prospective marriage' thing supposed to be this afternoon?"

He moaned lightly; he was starting to get tired of people slapping the term "prospective marriage" onto the situation. _'We're not getting married! We're just meeting offline! Gawd! Why does __everyone__ want to get us __hitched__?' _"Yes. The _offline_ meeting is this afternoon, but I thought I'd come early."

"Oh, okay! I'll buzz ya in now!" The intercom buzzed and Ryou opened the gate, walked down the path to the entrance and walked inside. The owner of the voice, Kiku, was the housekeeper and was a woman in her mid-thirties wearing a tan dress-suit with short black hair that was drawn back, guided him into a breakfast alcove.

"Ritsuko-sama, your son has arrived," Kiku bowed. Ritsuko was probably a little older than the housekeeper and had long, sandy brown hair and eyes the same fierce reddish color as Ryou's; she was wearing a pink yukata with a brown obi. She was sitting at a kotatsu and was finishing up her breakfast, sipping from a Japanese-style teacup.

"Mother?"

"Ryou-chan?" Ritsuko set her teacup on the table, rose to her feet and approached Ryou. She was about an inch or so shorter than him. "I thought you and your girlfriend and her parents weren't coming here until this afternoon."

His face flushed. "First of all, stop calling her my 'girlfriend'! We're only just meeting face-to-face for the first time today! And second of all stop calling me 'chan'! I'm almost eighteen!"

"So what are you doing here now?"

"To remove any damning photographs of myself from this house!"

"Whatever do you mean, son?" She grinned slyly; she understood his point fully, but wanted to hear him say it.

"You know what I mean! Naked baby pictures! I do not want Chigusa seeing me waddling around in a diaper that's falling off!"

"Awww... But all your other prospective brides _loved_ The Wee-Wee Train!"

"You know, _naming _the pictures _doesn't_ help..." He glared as he pulled off his coat. "But, at least it was a _clean_ diaper..."

"...You're not planning on wearing _that_ today are you?"

He looked down at his clothes, a white woven shirt with red embroidery at the left hip and right shoulder and a pair of khaki pants, "What's wrong with this?"

"Ryou-chan! Haven't I taught you anything? You can't meet a prospective bride dressed so casually!"

He glowed brighter; Kiku came in and took his coat before he threw it on the floor, "Wh-when the hell did she become my prospective _bride_?"

"Watch your mouth young man!" Ritsuko shouted; Ryou drew back, realizing his mistake. "Anyway, let's have a look at you." She circled around him, tugging at the fabric of his clothes and positioning him to see his size. "Hmmm... You've grown so much since you moved out, especially in the torso... Trying to impress the ladies, are we? Hmmm?"

"It's not like that...!" He folded his arms, turning red again. "I've always liked Phys Ed! And it's not like I'm _that_ big, there are plenty of guys in the sports clubs who're a lot bigger than me."

"Why haven't you joined a sports club?"

"You know I have my part-time job! Any sports club would contradict with my hours."

"Your father and I are paying your tuition and half your rent. We could pay all the rent if you wanted to quit your job and join a club."

"Nah. I like having the independence and I need to pay things like my Internet, cell phone and gaming bills. Besides, what would be the point? I graduate in the spring."

"Mmm. That's it! We're going to have to buy you a new suit. Come! You're going to the shopping district with me."

She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him towards the door, but he pulled back, "A suit? Mom! Do you really think I need to wear a _suit_?"

"I understand your need to impress the ladies with your sense of fashion, but here you're going to have to impress her parents as well."

"Ryou? You're here already?" A man with papers in his hand asked, pulling off a pair of reading glasses upon entering the room. He was a tall man with neatly combed chocolate brown hair that was just a little on the long side, brown eyes and was wearing navy blue slacks, white pinstripe dress shirt and a blue tie that was loose around his neck. It was Ryou's father, Keiji. "Is it one o'clock already?"

"No, it's about nine," Ritsuko answered. "Ryou came early to make sure we wouldn't show his new girlfriend his naked baby pictures."

He grinned, "He really thinks he can stop you?"

"Well, he has _your_ stubborn streak, Keiji."

"Dad? You're home?" Ryou exclaimed. "Isn't this usually the time of year you're always in meetings?"

"It is. But I got a call from your mother saying that you were meeting a prospective bride by your choice today and she wanted me to be here, so I rearranged my schedule."

"Mom! I keep telling you! She is _not_ my prospective bride or my girlfriend! She's just a girl I met on some net game! And Dad...! Tell her I _don't_ need to wear a _suit_...!"

"Well, you don't expect to meet a girl in this house with your Mother around wearing _that_ do you?"

"Grrmmm..."

XXX

'_Why do I have to wear this thing...?' _Chigusa thought to herself as she looked at herself in a full-length mirror at a kimono shop. She was wearing a green kimono with a large pink floral print and a worker at the store, who had short black hair pulled back in a small ponytail, was tying a brown obi around her waist. He wore a white woven shirt and black slacks and had a pair of square-rimmed glasses on his face.

"Chigusa!" her mother, Nariko, shouted. She was stern looking woman with short dark red hair cut into a bob and was wearing white blouse and tan a-line ankle-length skirt. "Quit slouching! You should stand straight when wearing a kimono!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Chigusa jumped into a straight position. "But Mother... Is it really necessary I wear this kimono? I mean, I'm just meeting a friend from a net game." _'Never made a big deal about my getting my 'official coming of age kimono' before, all of a sudden I give you two days notice on meeting a friend offline and you have to rush to the store...'_

"A friend who is also a boy. You're seventeen already; it is time to start looking at getting married soon. After all, all you and your sister are useful for is to find yourselves good men to marry and carry on the family name."

Chigusa looked down at the floor and began to tear up; she hated when her mother said things like that to her, but what could she do? If her mother said it, it must be true...

"Stop slouching!" Nariko grabbed her daughter's shoulders and forced her to stand upright. "Now I'm going to call this boy's mother again to confirm the time of the meeting, you stay here and don't give the tailor any more troubles!"

As she left, the man stood, "Okay young lady, what do you think of the kimono?"

"He's going to think I'm lame. Who in this day and age wears a kimono to meet a friend?"

"You know, young lady, any guy whose heart doesn't jump at the sight of a girl in a kimono like this probably has less depth than a puddle. Especially when the girl wearing it is as pretty as you. Now, is this guy really like that?"

'_Pretty? I'm not pretty...' _She pulled her hands up to her cheeks to hide their glow. "No. I guess not. At least I hope not... If he is, my parents will never let me see him again and..."

While she had been talking and fretting with herself, the man had made a few final adjustments, "Well, are you planning on wearing it out or what?"

"I'll probably wear it out. We're going straight to his house from here."

"Why don't you just sit in the chair and wait until your mother comes back then, okay?"

"Okay." She bowed, feeling grateful that at least the shopkeeper was being kind to her, and did as she was told and sat down, picking up a black blazer before doing so and laying it on her lap. A minute later Mrs. Kusaka walked back into the store.

"Seems I got the father this time... Not surprised, with the short notice you gave us she's probably in as much of a frenzy as I am! Anyway, lunch will be served at two with tea at one, and of course it would be polite to arrive on time. I'll pay for the kimono; you go to the salon next door and have your hair pinned up. I'll go find that idiot father of yours so that we can take a cab as soon as your hair is ready."

XXX

"Mom," Ryou said, wearing his coat again and carrying a garment bag over his shoulder. His mother was pulling him through a shopping district. She had thrown a coat over her yukata. "We came here to get a suit, now we've got the suit. What are we still doing here?"

"Of course you have to get a gift for this girl! And what would be better than..." She pulled him up in front of a jewelry store. "A piece of jewelry?"

She walked in and approached a display case that showcased a necklace with four purple jewels on an ornate golden plate. "Ooh! That one's nice! How much is that one?"

"It's 290,000 yen ($3,034 U.S.) ma'am," the lady behind the counter answered. She wore a black dress suit and wore her dark brown hair in a tight bun. "It's part of the Royal collection."

Ryou tried to hide his glare, "Mom...! Can't we just go to one of those trendy teen places and get her one for 3,000 yen? I may have not have met her _offline_ yet, but I know enough about her _online_ to know that if I give her a 300,000 yen necklace when we first meet, she'll stammer for about a minute and implode in on herself! Not to mention she'd never wear something that gaudy, she's not like that."

"Assuming you're being figurative about the imploding part, she sounds so cute...! But you are not spending only 3,000 on a necklace! After seeing our house, if you hand her a cheap necklace they'll think we're cheap. At least look in the area of 20,000-30,000."

"Okay. Fine..." He moved over to another one of the cases and his eyes landed on a solitaire diamond surrounded on a hollow heart-shaped yellow gold pendant on a thin yellow gold chain. "That one's pretty... Hey, ma'am?" He turned to the lady behind the counter. "How much is this one?"

"Let's see." She pulled the pendant out and looked at the price sticker attached to the clasp. "It is 27,950 yen ($289 U.S.)."

He blushed and smiled softly, "I'll take it; she'll love it."

"Very well, sir. I'll get a box for it and then ring you up." The lady bowed and turned to the register.

"A solitaire diamond heart necklace." Mrs. Misaki stepped up next to him. "What a very simple yet tasteful way to say 'I love you'. You're really falling for this girl already, aren't you?"

He turned brighter and gritted his teeth, "It's not like that! I'm just doing the polite thing like you told me to do!"

She giggled, "You know, you sound just like your father when we started dating? Ohh, I'm sure you'll be just like him...! He used to be so tightly wound and would deny it if someone else asked about our relationship, but when it was just the two of us, he was so passionate...!"

He steamed, shifting the bag on his shoulder._ 'Like I really wanted to hear that...'_

"Yep. That's the look he'd give all his buddies when they used to tease him."

"Gee, why did _Kuhn_ come to mind just then...?" He mumbled and rolled his eyes.

"Who?"

"A mutual friend of mine and this girl in the net game, he somehow managed to become my best friend and I _swear_ he's trying to turn teasing us into an Olympic _sport_!"

"Sounds like an exciting guy to have around."

"'Exciting' isn't _quite_ the word I would use. But I guess he's relatively _normal_ by comparison... All he does is chase skirts and annoy me. I have one friend, schitsophrenic with two egos and both play the game as the same character. Another, gay. For me. Oh and the schitso one's _female_ alter ego has the hots for the gay guy and wants to kill me for being her rival in _love_! By the way, she's eleven, and I think he's just turned twenty-one. Know this one guy, he's sort of my self-proclaimed teacher and he's about Dad's age, drinks like a sailor and teaches like Mr. Miyagi!"

"Sounds like things are pretty lively in this game!"

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah... 'Lively'. Anyway, pay for the necklace and let's go!"

XXX

"This is a pretty high-end neighborhood...!" Chigusa's father, Hiro, exclaimed sounding quite impressed. They rode down the street in a cab; he was in the front passenger's seat while Chigusa was in the seat behind the driver and her mother was across from her. He was an average-sized man with short light brown hair and wearing a gray suit.

"Hmph!" Nariko scoffed. "Maybe you're not so useless after all..."

"Nariko, please stop calling our daughters useless...!"

"Not here, Hiro, not here," she snapped. "I don't want to hear this right now."

The two adults began bickering quietly; Chigusa, her hair now pinned up in the back with small handfuls at the sides, covered her ears and looked longingly out the window, wishing she would have just snuck out of the house instead of telling her parents about meeting Ryou.

XXX

"Now when she comes in..." Ritsuko turned to Ryou; she was now wearing a long sleeve shirt with a scoop neck and a long gypsy-style skirt with a large floral print in black, purples and greens. "I want you to invite her down to the garden while your father and I sit down with her parents to tea."

"What? Why?" he screamed. He was now wearing a black suit with a green silk tie.

She giggled, "To give the two of you some privacy to get to know each other, of course...!"

Ryou folded his arms, looked away and puffed out his cheeks.

"Don't argue with your mother, son," Keiji said, now wearing a navy blue suit coat.

Kiku walked into the parlor and bowed, "Your guests have arrived."

The two adults stood, but Ryou slumped back, _'Why did it turn out like this...?'_

"Ryou-chan! Stand!" His mother snapped her fingers as she shouted. "And don't slouch! You'll wrinkle your suit!"

'_A suit I didn't even want to wear...!' _He reluctantly stood but kept his arms folded. His mother tried to motion to him to put his arms at his sides, but he would not respond. Chigusa and her parents walked in; she was wearing the same frustrated expression as Ryou, the adults began introducing themselves and their children. Her parents seemed to be at least be putting up the _appearance_ of a better mood.

When he saw her, Ryou dropped his arms and his expression changed to awestruck. _'Th-that's Atol-I mean, Chigusa? She's... beautiful.'_

Chigusa looked up from the tan drawstring purse in her hands and took a glance at Ryou, her cheeks flushed. _'So that's Ryou? He-he's really good looking...! ...At least with him wearing a suit, I don't feel so silly in this kimono.'_

"Well go over there." Ritsuko whispered and pushed him gently on his back towards Chigusa. "Go on and introduce yourself and then take her down to the garden."

Ryou blushed and tripped over his own feet when his mother pushed him. After a few seconds of standing awkwardly in the center of the room, he approached Chigusa, scratched the back of his head and bowed. "Hello Chigusa-san, I-I'm Ryou." When he rose, his face showed how nervous he was. "W-want to go down to the garden while our parents sit to tea?"

Chigusa blushed deeper, tilted her head and giggled a little, _'Is this really the boy who plays __Haseo__? I never thought he'd be the type to be so proper...! Though, he does look a little uncomfortable...' _"S-sure."

He held out his hand, she took it and they headed deeper into the house. The garden had eastern influences; from the tearoom on the side of the house, which was adorned with bamboo, there was a large pond that streamed into a waterfall. Around the pond to the left was a stone path that led into the heart of the garden. Although some parts seemed to be dense and secluded off by walls of bamboo, most of the garden could be seen from the tearoom.

As the two teenagers walked to the far side of the pond, Chigusa was watching the ground and playing with the drawstrings of her purse and Ryou was looking away and seemed unsure what to do with his hands. He glanced up at the tearoom to find his mother was now standing there and signaling him to put his arm around Chigusa's shoulders. His face flushed and he waved his hand to shoo her away.

"Huh?" Chigusa looked up.

"N-nothing!"

"Your parents' garden is beautiful."

"Heh. I gotta visit more often. I hardly recognize half of it anymore," he commented distantly. She giggled sharply, releasing tension; he blushed and cracked a sort of half smile. "What? Did I say something funny?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"Hey." He looked off towards the house. "Looks like my dad pried my mom away from the step for a bit." He turned to her with a playful grin and inadvertently grabbed her hand. "You want to use this sixty second window to escape to someplace where we won't feel so much like koi?"

She looked from his face to their clasped hands, trying to figure out how to react. Eventually she let him pull her along and giggled, sounding more relaxed, "Sure."

He helped her raise her skirt a little and they ran off deeper into the garden and away from the house and came to one of the small alcoves with a wooden bench in the center. He helped her sit down on the bench then followed her and loosened his tie, "Finally...! I was suffocating back there!"

She giggled again. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, "You're such an odd person offline. ...Hm? What are doing with your phone?"

She leaned over to see the phone screen, as her hair brushed against his shoulder, he jumped slightly, "...O-oh, sorry. You must think I'm so rude. But I just got an email."

"From who? Anyone I know?"

"It's from Bo."

"Is it private? What did he say?"

"It says, 'Um... Be friendly?'"

"Hee. For what?"

"It's a response to the discussion we've been having about application requirements."

"Oh. That one you sent to us to decide what applicants for Canard officially should do to get in?"

"Yeah. Apparently Bo hasn't read the second email I sent him telling him he doesn't have to come up with any trials to enter Guild Orientation... Speaking of which, you really don't expect me to put the trial description for your department on the website with that _emoticon_ on it, do you?"

"Yes!" She said, standing and lightly slamming her palms on the bench to give her support and shoved her face into his. She pursed her lips in attempts to look serious, but it just came out silly. "People need to know that you're not always such a sourpuss!"

He tried to hide his flushed face and chuckled a little at how cute she was acting, "I don't mind you and Tabby and I tolerate Silabus using them, but I don't want certain people thinking that _I_..." His phone vibrated in his hand, he punched a few buttons and after reading it's brief message he laughed again and read it out loud. "'Oh sorry Haseo-oniisan, I didn't see this second e-mail you sent. Please ignore that last message.'"

She stifled a snicker and sat back down, subtly shifting a little closer to him, "If I had a son, I'd wish he were half as sweet as Bo-chan..."

"Yeah," he grinned, not thinking of the implications of the sentence. "Just so long as the universe doesn't decide to balance itself by giving him a sister like Saku."

She tried not to laugh but it was no good "You're... You're a lot different than I expected you to be."

"What do you mean by _that_?" He jumped, feeling a little offended.

"W-well, you're still a little rough around the edges, but you're a lot quieter for one. And another, you're so polite and proper; you seem to do everything the right way..."

"Believe you me." He grinned, moving a little closer to her. "About half of that polite and proper stuff is at my mother's prodding to impress your parents; the other half is conditioning. Trust me, I'm not always like that! ...But you're a lot different from what I expected, too."

"Huh?"

"...You're a lot prettier than you made yourself sound."

"Ueeh...?" She turned bright red.

"Oh! Look how cute in the alcove...!" Ritsuko's voice came from the alcove's entrance.

"Mo-om!" Ryou's face now matched Chigusa's. Chigusa looked down and tried to bury her face in what little hair was hanging down. Keiji walked up and wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"And on that note, we'll be leaving!" He pulled his wife away.

After the parents left, Chigusa turned away, "You get along with your parents a lot better than I do with mine… Although, mine have been acting kind of weird since we pulled up to your house."

Ryou didn't want to see her get herself into a funk, tried to think of what to say or do. "I'm sure they just have your best interests at heart."

"That's what I'm worried about..."

"Huh?"

"I'm... I'm not worried about myself; I'm worried about you and your parents..."

"Why?"

"They try to hide it, but my parents are kind of, 'gold diggers'; about half of the guys they tried pairing me up with lived in a house like this. That's why they're acting weird, they're ecstatic I found what they were looking for for me on my own. Especially after your father introduced himself. I never knew your father owned a company, and such a big one too. Saki Communications? Isn't that... What does that company do?"

"We develop um... the technology that goes into creating various programs and 'apps' for cell phones."

"Oh."

"...Does, does this change _your_ opinion of me at all?"

"Huh? N-no! Not at all! I don't care about those kinds of things."

"...Hey." He grabbed her wrist. "I just remembered something! I just hope it's still here!"

"Wh-wha?" She stammered, grasping at the ends of her kimono to keep from tripping over it as he pulled her along. Shortly the two of them came into a small clearing that appeared to be a small bird sanctuary with a birdbath, a feeder and a couple houses. A couple birds could be seen at the feeder and one in the bath.

"Oh good!" he said quietly so he would not to scare the birds. "It's still here!"

Her eyes lit up and she blushed, also speaking quietly, "Your parents have their own private bird sanctuary?"

"More like a hideaway with a bath and a feeder. ...The houses have been replaced with newer ones. My mom had it made when I was a baby to help stimulate my sight. There's also a little dish somewhere where she'll put an orange slice in for butterflies in the spring. I haven't been here in _years_. I had almost forgotten about it."

"And yet you brought me here...! Thank you...!"

XXX

In the dining room, which was lavishly furnished, everyone had finished eating; one maid was clearing the used dishes off the table while another placed cakes and coffee or tea in front of them. "Ryou has been mentioning that the two of you met on a net game." Ritsuko spoke up, turning to Chigusa. She picked up her teacup and sipped from it. "But how exactly did you two meet?"

Chigusa jumped slightly and glanced over at Ryou, as if to ask him if it were all right. He grinned and nodded his head, "Oh, well, it's kind of complicated... Basically I had just started playing The World..."

Ritsuko and Keiji's interests peaked at the name of the game and looked at one another in concern. Neither of the teens nor the other set of parents noticed and Chigusa continued her story, "And the guy that had taught me how to play got in a heated argument with Ryou-san. I mean _really _heated, both Ryou-san's PC and the guy I was partying with were very high-level famous players, so they attracted a _crowd_. After that, I kind of followed him around to try and make him understand the other perspective; at first I just kind of annoyed him."

"But eventually circumstances brought us closer and closer," Ryou added.

Ritsuko, trying to set her concern aside, decided to continue the conversation, "I understand the two of you have a lot of interesting mutual friends on this game? One name came up, uh, Ruun?"

"It's 'Kuhn' mom."

"He named himself an honorific?"

"There's a silent 'h' after the 'u'."

"Oh. Is he from Switzerland?"

"Uh, no. He lives in Tokyo but I think he told me he grew up in Kanazawa."

"Why were you talking to your mom about Kuhn-san?" Chigusa tilted her head.

"Chigusa-chan!" Nariko chastised. "Don't speak out of turn!"

Chigusa blushed and looked down at her lap; Ryou either did not or chose not to notice Nariko's reprimand and scratched the back of his head.

"Uh well, that is... Um..." He sought a way to answer the question that would not worry Chigusa or rouse the parents. She eventually just giggled shortly, indicating to him that she understood the situation.

"An ability to communicate non-verbally, the two of you _have_ known each other for a while," Hiro grinned.

Ryou's face flushed deeper, "Um! Well... Not really, Kuhn's just entirely _way_ too predicable."

"According to our son, he's a skirt-chaser," Ritsuko blurted out.

"What?" Nariko exclaimed. "Chigusa-chan! You didn't tell us you were playing with a womanizer!"

"It's not what you may think. Sure, he may wink at me on occasion out of habit, but he's..." she giggled. "He's too afraid of Ryou-san to do anything."

"Don't you talk back to me! Honestly! What kind of manners is this boy teaching you!"

"Honey, not in front of the others...!" Hiro held his hands up in front of him and waved him.

'_I cannot stand this woman,' _Ryou thought. _'I want to learn more about the real Chigusa-san, but her mother keeps yelling at her, making it difficult.' _He stood. "May Chigusa-san and I be excused? I'd like to talk with her more and show her around."

Chigusa blushed. _'Is he really __asking__ to be alone with me?'_

Ritsuko giggled, at least pretending to not notice the other couple, "Of course! You two go on; you don't want to hang around with us boring adults!"

uhhXXX

"What did you... You, you asked to be alone... with..." Chigusa stammered, she and Ryou walked out onto a balcony adjacent to what appeared to be Ryou's old bedroom, which was on the inside direction of the leg of the house's L-shape. The room was dark and they could not see inside well.

"Augh!" He moaned and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry, I know what it sounded like, but I just couldn't stand to listen to your _mother_ anymore! I just wanted to talk to you, but I'm used to how strong-willed you are in The World. And just seeing you jump every three minutes because your mother was yelling at you, insisting that you be a 'proper young lady', was starting to piss me off!"

"I-I'm sorry...!" she bowed.

"I'm not mad at you, I just can't stand to watch the way your mother treats you, you deserve better than that."

She blushed, "Huhh..."

"So," He leaned over the railing, sensing her discomfort, he shifted the conversation. "Let's not dwell on that depressing subject."

"Huh?"

"I know we emailed each other a while ago to learn about each other offline, but it sort of ended up as just a conversation about beef bowls... Um, do you like any other kinds of foods? Like, what kind sweets do you like?"

She blushed, surprised that he was so casually asking about her, "Well, actually, my mother doesn't really allow me to have that many sweets. But sometimes I'll head out to school a little early, stop at the sweet shop near my house and buy a little bit of mochi or a package of konpeito."

"Oh. That's cool. What are your favorite flavors?"

"Well, with konpeito it's definitely the soda flavor! Um... With mochi, it's a tie between the type you eat when the cherry blossoms bloom, and the type with the peanut butter inside!" She was beginning to get excited and he chuckled. "So what about you?"

"Huh?"

"What kind of sweets do you like?"

"Uh, well..." He scratched the back of his head. "I guess I'm not really one for sweets, though I do like melon bread and... Well, I guess I like various baked goods. And chocolate, who could hate chocolate?"

She smiled and clasped her hands together in front of her and tried to hide her cheeks, "I-I know this really good recipe for a strawberry cake. Maybe I could bake one for you sometime?"

He blushed and looked over at her smiling face, "Uh, sure..." He back smiled warmly. "That sounds great. But enough about food, you mentioned to me once that you kind of like to write sometimes. What sort of stories do you write?"

"Oh-! Um, well... Not much really, I've tried various genres, but like I said before, I have trouble figuring out the middle and filling in the plotholes. I had one idea for a school drama that I thought was pretty good, but I seemed to lose direction with it."

"Could I read some of them sometime?"

"Ah!" she jumped. "I don't think so... they aren't really any good..."

"You know, to help your stories, it might be good to get a second opinion from someone who would want to help you improve, rather than just criticizing you. And learn to take constructive criticism."

"Oh. Despite my otherwise jumpy personality, when it comes to my writing I take criticism pretty well! That is, unless the person is just trying to be a jerk… But I usually go to sites specifically for writers, so I don't usually get a lot of those..."

"It'd probably still be a good idea to talk with someone who knows you well. Also, have you considered going to college and taking some courses to learn some better techniques on story development?"

"My parents don't really want me to go to college; they just want me to get married right out of high school... which is why they were so ecstatic about today. They're pretty upset about me being seventeen already and still not even having a boyfriend..."

He looked away, _'Well, what about...' _"...me?" he mumbled.

"Huh?"

He jumped back, "Uh, n-nothing!"

"Oh... Well." She smiled and leaned over the railing, closing her eyes. The wind blew through her hair. "I'm really glad we did this, even though it didn't exactly go as we planned, but still... It was fun meeting you offline!"

"Yeah," He folded his arms, turned around and leaned his back against the railing, staring back into his old bedroom. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, gray jewelry box the necklace he had gotten that morning had been put in. _'Oh. I almost forgot about this thing...'_

"Chigusa-san," he called softly. He pulled the chain out of the box, she looked over.

"Wh-what is that...?"

"It's a gift. For you."

"It's so beautiful... But. I can't accept this."

"Don't think anything of it." Reaching the chain around her neck, he clasped the necklace and let his fingers slip to the pendant just below her collarbone and let them linger there a while. Her cheeks pink, she reached for the pendant to have her wrists grabbed; she pulled on them slightly to keep the insides against her chest. When she looked up, his face was slowly drawing closer to her own but stopped short with his lips an inch above her own.

* * *

_A/N: Yeah... Since this is a comedy, I didn't want to go with an interpretation of Chigusa's parents that they were overly abusive or anything (I'm not that brave). I also gave her a sister because she doesn't really seem like an only child to me; at this point I don't know whether this sister will actually show up, but... Oh, and in case this is confusing you, (I doubt it, but...) the reference to Chigusa being a writer is from the manga. I just thought it was an interesting little fact about her and decided to use it. :) Anecdote - The name "Kiku" means "chrysanthemum", a reference to the emails with Saku when she was thinking of leaving. I wondered, "Why does Haseo randomly know the meaning of chrysanthemum in the language of flowers?"_


	12. Login012: Events Past

_A/N: (SPOILERS! Well, sort of... I hope not... But you better read this anyway because it'll help you understand what's going on in this chapter better...) Okay, now I know that in the novel Haseo does learn about playing as Sora and his coma, but since there wasn't anything in the __game__... One day Dad came home to find me watching the 25th episode of SIGN and after watching the scene where Sora was Data Drained by Skeith we sort of came up with our own version and this was the result..._

_

* * *

_

Login014: Events Past

Reaching the chain around Chigusa's neck, Ryou clasped the necklace and let his fingers slip to the pendant just below her collarbone and let them linger there a while. Her cheeks pink, she reached for the pendant; he grabbed her wrists. She pulled on them slightly to keep the insides against her chest. She he looked up, his face was slowly drawing closer to her own but stopped short with his lips an inch above her own.

He remained in that position for a few seconds, then grabbed her shoulders and closed the gap. Her eyes widened, and she pushed back using her wrist to cover her mouth, once again being careful to keep the insides hidden. His face dropped andhe pulled away, pushing his hair back. _'I've scared her again.' _"Sorry... you probably think I'm a terrible person now, just kissing you out of the blue like that..."

"No... That's not it." She pulled her hands down in front of her. "You just surprised me is all, that was the _last_ thing I expected you to do. But..." She touched her fingers to her lips. "I... I did like it." He looked at her with a little surprise, which then slid into a warm smile and he drew in again.

XXX

That evening in Chigusa's home, she was lying in the bath with a lavender-colored towel wrapped around her head and staring up at the ceiling. _'Did that really happen? Maybe I was just dreaming...' _She sunk her mouth under the water and exhaled causing small bubbles to pop at its surface.

'_I mean, if we were in The World, he would have yelled at me just for __thinking__ about us doing something like that. But...' _She sighed lightly and looked back up at the ceiling; she touched her lips where Ryou had kissed her. _'I never thought I could feel so... happy.'_

She dropped her head, closed her eyes and hugged herself, _'He held me so tightly, like he never wanted to let go of me. I had no idea he could be so strong offline too.' _She opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling once more, darting her eyes across the white surface as if it were a canvas for her thoughts.

'_I wonder where he is and what he's thinking right now; it's too late to call him, it would feel so weird and impersonal to just email or text message him, and...' _She sunk her mouth in the water again. _'I don't want to even think of how awkward it would be right now to meet up in The World…'_

At Ryou's apartment, he had been home a half an hour but he was still leaning against his door and all lights but a small lamp on his desk around the corner were off. "Chigusa-san..." He smiled serenely, placing his hand over his chest and squeezing his fist. He slowly moved his fingers to his lips. "I can't believe I really kissed her like that; it was just sort of an impulse. But I'm glad I did it. Though I hope I didn't scare her too much. I've never met a girl like her, it was just a passing feeling before but now that I've met her for real the feeling's real. She's the most precious thing in the world to me."

He walked across the hall into his kitchen, rubbing his head. "I can't believe how long I spent just wandering around that shopping district after I left my parents'..." He opened the refrigerator and eyed the instant food packages scattered across the shelves. He hadn't eaten since lunch and yet he was not hungry; he sighed and closed the refrigerator and leaned against the counter across from it, pushing his hair back with his fingers and leaving the palm on his forehead.

"My mind is just so full right now...! Everything that happened today with Chigusa-san, and then there was that thing my parents told me after she left..."

Several hours before at Ryou's parents' home, Chigusa and her parents said their goodbyes and headed down to the gate. Ritsuko turned and smiled Ryou. "Well, son, I know we threw your little date for a loop, but what did you think of her?"

Ryou's face shaded pink, unconcerned with the fact that his mother had referred to that afternoon's meeting as a "date". "She's cute; I'll definitely see her more."

The two adults looked at each other, grinned and thought, _'We have a winner!'_

"However," Keiji turned to Ryou more seriously. "We would like to talk to you about where you met her. The World?"

"Huh?" Ryou snapped to reality and turned to his parents behind him. "Why should that make any difference?"

"In your relationship with this girl it makes none, but we're a little concerned about you playing that particular net game."

"What? Why?" Ryou turned his head, trying to read his father's expression.

"Honey..." Ritsuko spoke up bitter-sweetly, hugging her elbow to her side. "We don't appreciate you playing that game. Because when you were ten you used to play it all the time, you loved it. Every night after finishing dinner and your homework you'd log in and play until I told you to go to bed. But then one day you..."

She fell into her husband's arms and wept; he wrapped his arms around her and picked up where she left off. "You fainted into a coma one day while playing it. The doctors couldn't identify the cause, but I had hired a private investigator that learned there was a similar case in Kanazawa and a team was working on that one under the assumption that the game was at the center of it. When you awoke several months later, you had been struck with amnesia and didn't remember a thing regarding how you had lost consciousness. Well, except you did keep muttering something about a staff and a boy in red clothes under your breath. And for the first few days you seemed utterly convinced you really were your PC."

Ryou pulled back in shock, "What?"

"I know it's a difficult thing to believe, an online game causing people to go into comas..."

"...No." He stepped back again and shook his head. "It's not that. I actually understand that about the game a lot better than you, it's just hard to believe that _I_ actually became a _Lost_ One."

Back at Ryou's apartment, he brushed his hair back and clasped his forehead. He sighed, "At least I was able to convince them that I wouldn't become a Lost One again, but _now _I've got to hunt down all those articles and stuff about Haseo to give to my mom...! I do not want to do that... That means I have to contact Aihara Salvador!"

XXX

The next day after Chigusa got home from school she logged into The World. Things seemed to be going rather typically, but even though they all could see he was logged in, no one had seen Haseo anywhere. Finally, she found him hiding in the Mac Anu tavern, wearing the same cloak from the previous week.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Atoli said cheerily to him in a private chat. She had a little bounce to her step and held her hands behind her back.

Haseo adjusted his cloak, eying a couple teenage girls by the bar and hoping that they would not associate Atoli's presence with his disguise. "See those girls over there? I've been trying to lose them since I logged in; apparently the other day when I last played I forgot to log out in the Netslums and ended up here in Mac Anu. Those girls just _happened _to be standing next to the Chaos Gate. My ears are _still _ringing from their squealing."

"Oh." She held a loose fist to her mouth and looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "So that's why none of us could figure out where you were..."

"Yes. I didn't want to tell anyone I was here to keep my hiding place safe; honestly I'm a little worried about the fact that _you_ happened to be the one to find me here." He arched his head to watch the girls, who had realized Atoli was standing there and were heading over.

"Crap!" He pulled his cloak over his face again and shifted to hide any parts of his armor that were exposed. "If they come over here, pretend I'm an informant I asked you to talk to or something."

"Um, excuse me?" One of the girls approached them timidly. "You wouldn't be Haseo-sama by any chance would you?"

"Why would you think that?" he asked. Chigusa turned her camera to him, surprised. His voice was suddenly deeper; she guessed that he must have used the voice changer feature to fool the girls.

"W-well..." The girl felt embarrassed, stepping back and sweat-dropping. "We traced him from the Chaos Gate to here and now _you're _here talking to Atoli-hime."

"Th-this is an informant Haseo-san asked me to talk to." Atoli pointed to Haseo.

Haseo remained motionless so the cloak would not shift and reveal his identity. "Maybe the boy did a hard reset or was DCed; I did see him come in here."

"Oh darn," one of the other girls spoke up. "So we wasted all this time for nothing."

After that the day seemed to just run together, Atoli was upset that Haseo would not say anything to her about what had happened between them the day before. At first she thought maybe he was waiting for the right moment when they were alone, but even when they had found moments he still would not say anything. Finally, she confronted him in the AtHome.

"Haseo-san!" She ran up to him, holding her fist to her chest. "Can't we talk? I mean, I know you like your privacy, but can't you at least say _something _about what happened yesterday?"

"I love you." He said, turning around and kissing her on the lips.

_'Ueh__? I can't believe he's actually saying those words to me...!' _she thought. He pulled back and cradled her in his arms. _'Huh? Why do I suddenly feel so cold?' _She glanced down at herself; he moved in to kiss her again. _'Ahh!' _She slapped her hands over her chest._ 'Where'd my clothes go!'_

Chigusa awoke in her bed and flung herself upright (yeah, realistic ain't it? XP). It was still dark outside; she looked at the clock next to her bed; 3:26am, _'A dream? Ohhh...!'_ She clasped her head with her hands. _'I can't believe I finally heard him say those words and it turned out to be a dream...! And I'll never get that last image out of my head!'_

XXX

Okay, we aren't tricking you it _really is_ the next day this time; Haseo cocked his head as he logged into the Netslums. "Huh? That's weird. What was that feeling just now?" He paused for a moment to see if he would feel it again. "Hm, maybe it was just some lag, hopefully it'll disappear after I've been on for a few minutes…" He checked his friends' list. "Atoli's not logged in, I hope she does, I'd really like to talk to her...!" He said with excitement in his voice. He continued down the list. "Hm. Kuhn's on, he hasn't responded to my email about department trials yet, I should ask him about it."

_Kuhn, are you busy? I'd like to talk to you in the AtHome._

_I'm just about to go on break; I need to rest my eyes from staring at the computer all day. Can it wait fifteen minutes?_

_Oh. Sure. Just send me a message when you get back._ "Now what to do for fifteen minutes?" He leaned back and crossed his arms. "I guess I could go to the AtHome and check up on things." He walked through the door out into the city and over to the AtHome entrance. "Hey pig! Tell me what's going on today!"

"Don't call me 'pig' you nose hair!" Death Grunty screeched out, turning to Haseo at the entrance from where it was in the center of the room. Behind it a couple teenage boys who had been laughing and teasing Melo Grunty with some item that resembled a taiyaki stopped and stared at Haseo and his Grunty counterpart. "My name is Death Grunty! Oink!"

"And _my_ name's _Haseo_! Not '_nose_ hair'!" He folded his arm and stomped on Death's head. "Don't you have enough memory in that electronic brain of yours to remember that? If you call me by my name I'll call you by yours! Now give me that report!"

"I've visited a lot of AtHomes since I started playing." One of the two regular members whispered to the other. He was a Harvest Cleric with sandy brown hair who was wearing a white lab coat over his blue and black cloth armor and holding the fish-like object. His name was dr horrible. "Usually the Guild Master either hugs their Grunty the entire time they're in the AtHome or they ignore them unless they need to use the NPC's menus. Haseo is the _only_ Guild Master I've ever seen who will _actually_ get into _physical_ fights with his Grunty! Though normally regular members don't get to see it often, usually that hot little blonde he's always with, Atoli, shoos us out before things get 'ugly'."

"Really?" The other's name was DevilShot; an Edge Punisher. He had silver hair that covered most of his face and wore a red gunner's coat. He was carrying Melo in his hands. "The only other guild I've ever visited was the old Moon Tree; I thought that was normal since I've never seen Zelkova interact with Melo Grunty." He pulled the Grunty up to his face to emphasize his point.

"And you went straight for the hardest guild to get into?"

"Actually, I'm in New Moon Tree, not Canard." He shifted Melo, it was getting fussy. "It's easier to get into, though since the two guilds are sharing an AtHome there are some 'Ha Fangirl firewalls'. Well, that's my experience anyway. I'm in Matsu's division. I think he adds extra obstacles since his division has a lot of interaction with Haseo's."

"I was wondering about that. I mean, someone who looks like Dante in Moon Tree?"

"New Moon Tree; I tried to get in once before their whole incident. Let's just say the only thing that Sakaki guy _didn't_ do was kick me out on my _butt_. And it _was_ because he thought my character design wasn't appropriate for the guild. So I like _Devil May Cry_. Sue me. I mean, nobody's judging you because you like stuff by... that one American screenwriter/director..."

"I surprisingly still get a lot of song requests though... Anyway, how does AtHome sharing work? I mean I could understand if they were just two parts of one guild and they decided to name them two different things but... This AtHome has _two_ Grunties and even, your profile says you're part of 'New Moon Tree' right? And mine says 'Canard'. Is that possible?"

"Beats me, but I hear we're getting our own AtHome soon."

"Are you fighting with Death Grunty _again_?" Pi asked, walking into the room; landing at the base of the stairs, she crossed her arms and shifted her weight.

"My anger management instructor said I needed a healthy output for my aggression such as a stuffed animal." Haseo grinned, kicking Death back with his heel. "And since I wouldn't be caught _dead_ owning a stuffed _animal_...!"

"You know, a pillow would work just as well."

"I was kidding..." He chuckled, winking and holding his forehead delicately. Pi raised her eyebrow. "It's just that, well you know me and Death is just like me. It's just kind of how we communicate." He stepped back and moved his hand to his hip. "Anyway, did you want something?"

"Kuhn sent me over, he said you wanted to ask him something but he had to go on break so he asked if I would come and see if it was something I could answer."

"Oh, no. Thanks for the offer to help, but it really isn't. It's guild business regarding the emails being passed between us senior members. Specifically the ones between me and him."

She drew back and blushed, _'What's with him? He's so... compliant. "Thanks for the offer"? When did __he__ develop __manners__?' _"Very well, I guess I'll return to my business then."

As Pi left, DevilShot leaned over to his friend, "What kind of business do you suppose _she_ does?"

dr horrible watched the doorway with a pervy grin on his face. "Maybe... private tutoring...?"

"How would that work in an online game?"

"Anything is possible in The World." DevilShot inched away from dr horrible.

XXX

"I just don't think it's necessary for the Training department to have any more trials beyond the probation." Kuhn answered Haseo's question; they were sitting on the bench in the AtHome and talking. Kuhn looked over at Haseo who looked kind distant, resting his chin in his hand; he placed his heel on Death Grunty's forehead, its nerves began popping and it swung its arms. "After all, that's what the whole probation centers around."

"Oh. That's fine; I was just wondering why you didn't send a response to my email."

"Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Haseo turned his head to towards Kuhn, pulling Death's head closer with his foot then kicking it back.

"We've been talking for about ten minutes and you haven't once hit me or called me an idiot."

Haseo turned away again, "Oh."

Kuhn stood and got in his friend's face, first feeling his forehead for a temperature. When he realized he wouldn't be able to feel anything anyway, he pulled his hand down and backed away a little. "Hm. Well, okay... What's my current goal in collecting email addresses?"

"What?" Haseo laughed and pulled his head away, feeling crowded.

"Answer the question."

"To make Pi's private address the 1000th. Why?"

"Hm. Okay." Kuhn straightened his back and sat back on the bench. "I just had to make sure it was really you."

Haseo looked off into space in the direction of the room's entrance when Atoli walked in. As soon as he saw her, he stood with his cheeks flushed and excited look on his face. "Atoli!"

Atoli turned bright red and stepped back before running out, screaming out an apology. "I-I'm sorry!"

"Wha?"

"Trouble in paradise?" Kuhn grinned, resting his chin in his hand.

"Huh? Oh, I don't know..." Haseo scratched the back of his head. "She was fine yesterday..."

"Huh?" _'He didn't jump down my throat like usual... wait.' _"Neither one of you logged in yesterday, what are you talking about?"

"Uh!" Haseo's face turned bright red but he quickly turned away to hide it. "Don't read anything into it! We were both just really busy yesterday!" He folded his arms. "We had exchanged cell numbers a while back and I decided to call her yesterday. She sounded fine on the phone yesterday, that's all I meant!"

"Really? That's all?" The grin on Kuhn's face returned.

"Yes!" Haseo headed up the stairs to the exit. "Idiot."

After he left Kuhn chuckled to himself, "He didn't start out so defensive, in fact his defenses were unusually _down_. But when I asked him about them not being logged in yesterday, they shot right back up. I should do some looking into this."

XXX

"Oh no oh no oh no!" Atoli cried out. She sat and rocked against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest in the hallway leading to Tartarga's bridge. Wise Grunty trotted up to her and offered her some pickles to console her, but she didn't seem to really notice. "I can't even _look_ at Haseo-san without seeing that image from my dream last night! Ohhhh...! I just _know_ he'll yell at me if he finds out about it!"

"Oh..." Tabby walked up from the direction of the Chaos Gate. "Atoli, there you are! Why didn't respond to any of my Short Mails?"

"Huh?" Chigusa snapped to reality, her PC looking around aimlessly while she looked around her screen. "Oh! I'm sorry! I must not have even noticed them! I have a lot on my mind..."

"You wanna talk to me about it?" Tabby asked, stepping forward a little.

"I don't know... If I tell you, you're sworn under _absolute_ secrecy, you _cannot_ tell _anyone_! Not even... _especially _not Haseo-san, if he found out about this, I would just _die_!"

Tabby held her hand erect, "I won't tell anyone."

"Well, you know he and I met offline yesterday. At the end of the day he..." she blushed. "He kissed me."

"Oho! He wasted no time! So," Tabby grinned, kneeling down. "What was it like?"

"That's not really the point, so do you really have to know?"

"Of _course_ I have to know! We're girlfriends! Whenever one of the girls goes out with a guy, it's her _duty _to tell all the others all the _dirty_ details!"

Atoli blushed as she looked back down at the ground and hugged her legs tighter, "I don't know, I'm not sure how describe it. It felt so weird, but I... didn't dislike it, in fact, I _did_ like it... My body felt so warm."

"Wow. So what's the problem?"

"Well, last night... I guess because of that kiss, I had a strange dream, where we were here in The World and..." She paused and blushed, after a couple seconds she leaned over to Tabby and whispered in her ear, which twitched a couple times as her eyes widened.

"Oh my gosh! No wonder you don't want anyone to know! But you know, it _was_ just a dream, I'm sure Haseo would understand that." Tabby's tail wagged a couple times, her face brightening into a sly grin. "Besides, there's always the chance _he _had one about _you_!"

Atoli looked away, flushed, "I don't think he would..."

"Last week you wouldn't have thought he'd _kiss _you!" Tabby pointed her finger up. "Haseo may be a bit of a sissy at times, but he is still a teenage boy. They think that way more than they would want us to believe."

Atoli turned back, "How do you suddenly know so much about men?"

"One of the nursing courses I needed to take this semester filled up before I could get to registration, so I decided to take a psychology course to see what I could learn. It had no prerequisites."

"Oh. Anyway, I guess what you said could be true. This time last week I wouldn't have even thought he'd ask to _meet_ me _offline_! But, you really think...?" Her voice trailed off, she heard someone clear their throat and saw Haseo approaching her, he had not heard what the girls were saying, but he looked worried. She tried hiding her face behind her knees, focusing her view on his boots.

"Atoli, are you okay?" He reached his hand out to help her up, but she ignored him and sat on the ground, her face red.

Tabby whispered to her, making a shooing motion. "Go on. Just tell him, you can do it."

Atoli fretted and stood shakily, but when Haseo reached out to take her hand, she shut her eyes and ran past him. "I-I'm sorry!"

"Wait! Atoli!" Haseo grabbed for her but her hand slipped from his grip. His face turned sour; his heart felt pain at her avoidance and ran after her. He quickly cut her off and grabbed onto her shoulders, behind them Kuhn exited the AtHome. "Atoli! Why are you avoiding me today?"

"Um, uh-!" She looked down and shut her eyes tightly. _'How can I tell him? How can I tell him about...! I know he's more understanding about things now than he was before, but...' _She shook her head violently. _'I just know he'll get mad at something like this...!' _She logged out and disappeared, leaving Haseo shocked.

"Why? Atoli..." His face drew to anger; he turned to a nearby wall and punched it, cracking the graphics slightly. He pulled away and clasped his forehead, trying to hide his tears. Two of the humanoid inhabitants and the dog turned to repair the damage. "Dammit! Why the hell won't you tell me what's wrong?"

Tabby shifted her weight uncomfortably.

"Tabby," He turned to her with a worried look. "She was talking with you; did she say anything that would indicate...?"

Her ears sagged and she frowned, "Sorry. She made me promise not to tell anyone. Not even you. Besides, it's really something she should tell you herself."

"It wasn't..."

"Oh don't worry," Tabby smiled again and saluted. "It's not that she was dissatisfied with your little date yesterday or the way you kissed her!"

His face glowed bright red, "She told you about _that_?"

"Oops!" Her ears perked up; she gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. "I probably shouldn't have told you she said that as well..."

His expression softened, "Well, at least she wasn't upset about it."

"Ueh?" Her ears twitched, surprised by his calm reaction.

"Ahhh...!" Kuhn grinned, approaching Haseo and Tabby. "So _that's_ what you meant earlier when you said 'she was _fine _yesterday'!"

Haseo turned to Kuhn, _'Dammit! I didn't even notice him leave the AtHome!'_

"So," Kuhn wrapped his arm around Haseo's shoulders, feeling victorious. "What did you and Atoli do on this little date of yours? And let's hear more about this _kiss_."

In Indieglut Lugh, Atoli had swum out to the tree in the center of the lake and was sitting on the roots with her knees up to her chin and looking down at the water. A glint of metal flashed up at her; she wondered if it were part of Endrance's underwater prison Haseo had told her about. She reached down to touch the water.

"I really should tell him, but whenever I even think of that dream, that last image floods into my mind...!"

"Who you talkin' to all by yourself in the dark?" Saku's snide voice came from across the lake. Atoli looked up to find her standing at the edge of the lake, hands on her hips and a glare aimed straight at her. "Whatcha doin' here anyway? Don't you know this is En-sama's special place?"

"Saku-chan? Well, can't one place be special to more than one person?" She forced a smile. "Because this place is special to Endrance-san, it's special to _you_, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah." Saku drew back, trying to hide her cheeks. "Why is this place so special to _you_?"

"Hmm... Many reasons I guess. A lot of firsts for me happened here; first time I used my hearing ability brought me here, here I met Kuhn-san, and first encountered AIDA... But I guess the reasons that are most significant to me are... This was the first Lost Ground I went to together with Haseo-san, and it was also where he first asked to meet me offline."

"Ew. Shoulda known _your_ reasons would have _something _to do with that silver-haired idiot. Please tell me you did _not _take him up on his offer to meet offline...!"

Atoli giggled, talking to Saku seemed to be taking her mind of other things, "You have a crush on Haseo-san, don't you?"

"Ew! No way!" Saku folded her arms, stomped her foot and blushed. "And even if I did, which I don't, you'd be all jealous of me because you're _obsessed _with him!"

"I, I-I-I I'm not _obsessed_ with him!"

"Pfffft. Yeah you are." Saku rolled her eyes.

XXX

"Yo. Haseo." Later that day, Kuhn walked into the AtHome and approached Haseo, who was sitting the bench. Melo Grunty was doing a little dance on the floor in front of him while Death was trying to push him off the bench. "Did you read the update? The new patch this morning increased the max party number to four."

"Yeah. I'd heard that." Haseo didn't seem very interested in talking, or the Grunties trying to get his attention.

"Hey." Kuhn picked up Death Grunty and began passing it between his hands like a ball or stuffed toy. "You want to do something together? Like take Silabus and Gaspard to an area or something?"

Haseo forced a smile with a small chuckle watching as Death Grunty jumped out of Kuhn's hands, jumped up again, slapped him in the head and called him an idiot. "...Sure."

"Okay!" Kuhn was unfazed by Death's attack. "Add me to your party and let's go find them!"

"'Go find them'?" Haseo leaned back, resting his ankle on the opposite knee. "Wouldn't it just be easier to message them like usual?"

"Oh, c'mon Haseo, you really have got to get out more than just to the AtHome and the Lost Grounds!"

"I _go_ to those places _because_ I usually only run into the people I _want_ to see."

"You're turning into a hermit."

"I am _not_! I just prefer to be left _alone_!"

Kuhn snorted, "That's the _definition_ of a hermit...!"

A young Blade Brandier walked in; he looked to be using a similar character model as Silabus except his armor was brown and his blonde hair was short and hung down around his face, his name was risuisu. "Oi! You!" Haseo called out to him. "I want your opinion! Am I a hermit?"

"Uhhh..." risuisu held up a golden egg shaped object. "I just came here to see if anyone would trade me fifteen Potions for these two armor-type Materials I have. My partner and I are short on both them and money lately."

"I can trade you the Potions in a minute, but first tell me what you think."

He stepped back, "I-I don't think I'm qualified to make that assessment."

"Just answer! I won't judge you based on your answer!"

"Don't worry about what he says," Kuhn spoke up. "He gets this way sometimes. Just, say what you think."

"Well," risuisu turned to Haseo. "I wouldn't say you're a _hermit_, I mean, I always see you talking to people here in the AtHome, but on the other hand, no one ever sees you in a Root Town anymore... except there were some girls who were squealing about seeing you in Mac Anu a few times on Valentine's Day, and well, I guess you do go to areas to look for PKers... And you're in the Arena a lot... Actually you're not that much of a hermit at all! You're like... Batman. A famous yet enigmatic bachelor by day; knight of justice cleaning up a crime-ridden city by night!"

Haseo paused for a moment and turned from risuisu to Kuhn and stared blankly. "...He just compared me to an American comic book character."

"I-I'm sorry-!" risuisu bowed sharply.

"Don't apologize." Kuhn couldn't help but laugh. "He's not mad, he's... baffled. People don't usually say things like that to him. Actually, I think he's impressed with your honesty."

"Let's trade those items now." Haseo opened up a menu to trade with risuisu.

"Thanks!" risuisu bowed nervously again.

"So what department are you in?" Haseo shifted his weight; it made him feel uncomfortable when people bowed so deeply to him, but he seemed to be unable to do anything about it with his guild members.

"Huh?" risuisu rose to see Haseo's face.

"Well, since I really don't have any need for these Materials, I'll probably just sell them in the shop. Since you sort of 'donated' them, I thought I would put the profits into whatever department you're working in."

"Oh. Well, actually I'm in yours. Protections."

"Really?" Haseo stood and looked closely at risuisu. "Oh yeah, I kind of remember your trial now, I don't usually remember names, but yours stuck out at me as particularly odd, meaning 'squirrel chair'. You're a really good fighter."

"Thanks! I originally started playing this game because I'd heard the Arena system was really good, but honestly, those PKers even bring down the sanctity of the Arena, so my friend and I thought your cause was one worth joining. By the way, my name's an intended distraction for PKers; I play another character in the Arena."

"'Sanctity of the Arena'?" Haseo laughed, he had heard of the phrase before, but had never heard anyone actually use it. "And I can see how that would be a distraction, I can't stop staring at it on my display."

"LOL! Anyway. Those PKers are really bad. Especially that one chick and her lackeys, what's-her-name... Thinks she means something to you, I think her name is the same as some French village known for making wine."

"You mean Bordeaux?" Kuhn asked.

"Yeah! You know, there are some PKers who do show proper respect in the Arena, but then there are others like her who just use it as another opportunity to bully others. In any case, I should be heading out to my patrol now."

"Before you leave, let me give this to you." Haseo opened up his Gift menu.

"...What? You're serious? You're just going to _give_ me this?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm such an advanced player, I have more expendable GP than I'm ever going to spend anyway, might as well give it to someone who really needs it."

"Th-thank you!" risuisu bowed and left.

"We should be heading out, too," Kuhn turned to Haseo.

"Forget it!" Haseo made frustrated gestures. "I'm sending them a message!"

"Haseo...! You should _really_ go out to Shop Acorn anyway, it's been a while since you've gone there and only the Guild Master can extract the Shop profits."

"Speaking of which, why can't I do that from the post in the Netslums anymore? I tried two days ago and the menu option wouldn't even show up, no matter what I tried! I think I scared Gaspard a little."

Kuhn sweat-dropped, "I, uh, asked Zelkova to rewrite the program so that you would have to go to a regular Root Town to do that."

He stepped back as Haseo glared at him. "Fine! Let's just go!"

'_Eh, heheheh...' _Tomonari made his PC sweat again, watching Haseo curse him under his breath and storm out._ 'He's got that look in his eye again like he wants to kill me, but at least his mind doesn't seem to be lingering on whatever he and Atoli are having problems with today.'_

XXX

"Haseo! And Kuhn!" Gaspard exclaimed. He ran around from behind the shop stand in Mac Anu and hugged Kuhn's legs then Haseo's, who was now wearing the same cloak as on Valentine's day, except it was white now and while the hood was up, and he wasn't making any real efforts to hide his armor.

"I thought you said you wouldn't wear the cloak in town because it would make you stand out? And wasn't it black?"

"Apparently what's so special about this cloak is that you can change the color to whatever you want, and you can change it up to three times per real day, don't ask me why. And I did say that, but then I learned that about 70,000 other people did the same quest and several of them are wearing the cloaks, plus more and more people are moding their character with regular robes and cloaks from time to time, so... Good disguise."

"Oh."

Behind the stand was a redheaded Macabre Dancer girl named Heartilly626 blushed watching Gaspard hug Haseo, probably wishing she could hug him like that.

"What are you two doing here?" Gaspard asked excitedly.

"Hi Gaspard," Haseo smiled. The smile dropped when out the corner of his eye he noticed Heartilly626 get stars in her eyes. "I just came here to pick up the Shop earnings, and then Kuhn and I were wondering if you'd like to hang out with us and Silabus."

"Sure!" Gaspard turned back to the shop. "Heartilly, you think you can handle business on your own, or should I send someone to help you?"

Heartilly626 tried to hide her jealous look. "We're kind of slow right now, so I could probably handle things on my own. But if it gets busy later, I can just call someone myself."

"Okay!"

"Oh!" She turned to Haseo, hoping to have this one pleasure and held out a tan-colored bag out to him with both hands and bowed. "Here, Haseo-sama. Here's the GP from the current earnings of the Shop."

"Uh, thanks," He took the bag from her hands. "I'll give this to Silabus when we find him and he'll divide it up accordingly. ...Oh." He pulled out the same egg object risuisu had held and placed it in her hands. "Add that to the inventory."

Taking the item, she tried to hide a squeal and turned back to her work. While he watched her, he cocked his brow. "Let's go now."

The three of them walked off and Kuhn turned to Haseo, "Silabus will be waiting for us at Breg Epona's Chaos Gate."

"_Another_ Root Town?"

"Think of it this way, we won't be in Breg Epona long."

"Grmmmm..."

They met Silabus at the Gate and turned to warp into the area. Kuhn, Silabus and Gaspard arrived in a cavern dungeon but quickly realized that Haseo was no longer with them.

"Haseo?" Kuhn called out, after receiving no response he opened a menu to send a Short Mail. "Damn! It bounced back at me!"

"Kuhn...!" Gaspard grabbed onto his hand. "What happened? Where's Haseo?"

"Tck!" Kuhn turned to Whisper to Silabus. "Take Gaspard back to Town! Now!"

Silabus took Gaspard by the hand and led him back to the Platform. Kuhn opened up his Short Mail menu again.

_Yata! Haseo just vanished! Where is he?_

XXX

Haseo found himself in the middle of a black space with a triple spotlight shining over him. "Where...? I've been here before, but why am I here this time?" Another spotlight appeared in front of him and a green-haired man wearing a black and purple leotard stepped forward. "Who...?"

"I know you do not recognize this form now, but I thought it might help you understand what I have to say. I have been trying to speak with you."

"Huh? Who are you?" Haseo tried to step closer to the other but found that he was unable to move.

"I... am you."

"_Skeith_? Why would you suddenly decide to change your appearance like that?"

"This," Skeith pointed to himself. "Is also you."

"What?" He was quickly turned in another direction where Pi walked past him, but her colors were reversed.

"We've heard the cries of your heart and have brought you here to answer them."

"Huh? Pi. What are you doing here?"

"I am not the PC Pi as you know her."

"What? Do you mean, you're Tarvos?"

Meanwhile, Kuhn ran into Tartarga's bridge, "Yata! Any luck finding Haseo?"

"The Serpent of Lore cannot locate him anywhere within the game, but that area you went to with him and those two players is showing an enormous amount of data."

"It's been an hour, is anyone trying to contact him in the real world? I know Atoli has his number!"

"We..." Pi spoke up, holding her right arm tightly to her side with her other hand. "We have Atoli trying to contact his cell phone, but so far she's only gotten his voice mail."

"Where is she now?"

"Shino took her to Arche Keoln Waterfall to calm her down about fifteen minutes ago," she answered.

"Well, I'll go check on them."

XXX

"What are you guys talking about?" Haseo shouted.

"He is yet to understand." The two halves of Gorre had manifested themselves as Saku and Bo together holding each other's hands to their chests.

"We are telling you what your heart desires to know." Corbenik stepped forward as a reversed Ovan.

"Ovan! What are you doing here? I didn't ask for any of this! What are you doing to me?"

"Our taking these forms confuses him." Atoli stepped in from another direction. She was, of course, really Innis taking the form of Atoli. "He believes us to be the users of these PCs we are attached to."

"Why are we wasting our time giving him this information?" said Fidchell as a redheaded Yata in a yellow monk's robe. "He is insignificant."

"You're too cold Fidchell." Macha chose not to appear as Endrance, but in the form of an abnormal feline Lei Tribe Blade Brandier similar to Mia. "Not everything is about calculations."

"Not everything is about emotions either. The only reason I am here is because the rest of you managed to convince me. And the only reason you are here is because of this strange affinity Skeith feels for this..." He indicated to Haseo. "This player."

"Cut it with the doubletalk already!" Haseo yelled. "What are you talking about? What do you _want_?"

"Your missing memories," Tarvos answered.

"We wish to restore them." Magus answered the second question; he had appeared as a reverse Kuhn.

Haseo drew back, "H-how do you even know about that...?"

"Correction," Fidchell folded his arms. "_Skeith_ wishes it. You guys are just going along for effect."

"Fidchell! Shut up! Seriously!" Skeith stepped forward, he then turned to Haseo. "I have known about it for a long time. It was, after all, _my _Data Drain that _caused _your amnesia."

"Your...? My? The hell?"

"But we chose to speak with you about it now because when you logged in today, I felt how disturbed you were and tried to contact you. But you seemed to brush off all my attempts as signs of your system lagging."

"What...?"

"The surprise seems to have inhibited his speech abilities," Corbenik commented.

"Cat got your tongue?" Magus grinned at Haseo.

Innis turned to Macha and bowed, "Would you mind please returning Haseo-san's tongue to him?"

Macha hissed, "Innis! How many times do I have to tell you? I am not _really_ a cat!" She blushed. "My master and I just... have a sentimental attachment to this appearance."

'_What the hell is going on here?' _Haseo sweat-dropped. _'They keep using the names of the Avatars, I know Skeith talked to me that one time right after the Rebirth, but he appeared as an inverted version of Haseo. Why... Is this all eight of them talking to me at once?'_

"I suppose my words came as quite a shock to you."

"...What happened?"

"That is what we intend to tell you."

XXX

"I can't..." Atoli cried, squatting to the ground. She and Shino had been watching the waterfalls in Arche Keoln while talking. "I can't keep calling him and reaching nothing but his voice mail!"

"Why don't you take a break?" Shino knelt down to see Atoli's face. "You've been calling him straight for two and a half hours, if he comes to while you're resting, I'm sure he'll see all the missed calls he got from you and call back right away."

"But where could he have gone?"

"I wish I could tell you..."

Atoli wept, _'Now I wish I hadn't avoided him all day... But every time I looked at his face, all I saw was what was in my dream last night...'_

"Oh yeah...! You two met offline yesterday didn't you?" Shino tried acting cheerful and change the subject. "How did that go?"

Atoli blushed, Shino's diversion had worked. "Except for the part of our parents' discussing our wedding plans, it went pretty well. His parents have a beautiful house."

Shino chuckled at the first part of Atoli's sentence, "I know there's probably no point in asking, but... Did he do anything romantic?"

Atoli blushed, "He gave me this really pretty necklace." Her pupils narrowed. "I mean _really _pretty... Judging from his parents' house, I'm pretty sure it's a real _diamond_! And then after he put it on me, he... he kissed me."

"A diamond and a kiss on the first date?" Shino's eyes widened. "Wow, I never thought he'd be so bold!" She looked off distantly.

"Shino-san?"

"Oh. Sorry, my mind just sort of started to play a little game of 'what if...' You see, Haseo did actually ask to meet me offline just before I fell into my coma, but I turned him down. At the time, I was afraid that if he met me offline there would be one of two results. He'd either A; fall totally in love with me like it seems he did with you."

Atoli jumped slightly, her face turning pink. Shino giggled quietly and continued. "Which because of my feelings for Ovan would have put me in the awkward position of having to reject him. Or B; the real me wouldn't live up to his expectations of me and he would lose total interest. In either case, he might have quit the game as a result, jeopardizing Ovan's plan to use him to activate the Rebirth."

"Huh. I should probably try him again."

"Atoli put your phone down," Shino took Atoli's hands. "You need to get your mind off of this. Is there another area you'd like to go to?"

"...Maybe we could go to the Hulle Granz Cathedral and pray for his safe return?"

"Of course." Shino helped Atoli stand and they returned to the Platform. "So, what does the necklace look like?"

"It's yellow gold, and there's sort of a hollow heart shape around the diamond, I can email you a picture if you want..."

XXX

Back to the black abyss, Haseo and the Avatars had been speaking for a while. Magus turned to him. "The others have begun to worry about you," He indicated to Innis, who had appeared behind him, looking as worried as Atoli always would. "We shall send you back to them now."

The abyss disappeared and Haseo was transported, reappearing on his back in midair at the front of the Cathedral's sanctuary, landing on top of the plinth. The clattering chains startled Atoli and Shino who were sitting in the front left pew.

"Ugh, Hulle Granz Cathedral?" He groggily pushed himself up, holding onto his head. "How did I end up here?"

"Haseo!"

"Haseo-san!" Shino and Atoli called out together; they ran up to the plinth to help him.

"Shino? Atoli? What are you two doing here?"

"Haseo-san." Atoli was tearing up. "We were so worried about you...!"

"What do you mean? You were there." He clasped his head. His mind had placed an image of the PC form of Innis over Atoli. "Or were you?"

"What? What do you mean? I wasn't there! I don't even know where 'there' is!"

"Where was I? I can't remember anything! Just... what they told me."

"Haseo!" Shino shouted. "What are you talking about? We don't understand!" She tried coaxing him to calm down, but he began to scream out incoherently. He calmed down after a moment, but then he was unresponsive to anything. His hands and head were still moving slightly, so the girls knew he hadn't left the keyboard, but he would not answer to any of their coaxes.

"Shino! Atoli!" Kuhn called walked into the cathedral. "Any more luck at contacting... Haseo!" He ran up the aisle to the plinth with the girls. "What happened to him?"

"We don't know." Shino answered, turning to Kuhn with her hands in front of her. "He was a little confused and disoriented when he appeared, he seems to not understand what happened to him and we haven't gotten a straight answer out of him yet."

"How long have I been away?" Haseo suddenly shouted. "I... I feel so disoriented. I can't tell what time it is, I..." He grabbed onto his head and began rocking in his seat.

Kuhn cocked his head, "Time disorientation? Doesn't that usually only happen when..." He turned to Haseo. "Haseo, you were missing for five hours."

"What?" Haseo tried to stand but found himself faltering over, Shino and Atoli reached to help him down, but he flinched and drew back from them. "Don't touch me!"

"What happened to him?" Atoli cried as Haseo pulled back and stood behind the plinth, arching his back and breathing hoarsely like a frightened animal.

"Whatever it was, it must have scared him," Kuhn said. "And he doesn't like being scared, it makes him feel vulnerable. And of course the last thing he would want is to feel vulnerable in front of the two of you."

"Ohhh...!" Atoli cried out and ran around the plinth, embracing Haseo. "What you went through must have been so traumatizing!" Haseo's breath cut short and wavered at Atoli's touch. He blushed and looked down at her, after a few seconds he smiled warmly and moved his hands so they were hovering around her shoulders.

"It is not so much what he experienced." Yata said as he and Pi approached followed closely by Bo and Endrance. "As it is the amount of information he has retained."

"What?" Kuhn turned to his work associates.

"I scanned his PC when he reappeared here in the Cathedral; a large amount of data has been added to the memory banks of his character. This data is encrypted, very well; I was unable to access it. If even a portion of the information contained in that data is in his mind, it is no wonder his confusion, let alone what that information may contain."

"...Yata." Haseo spoke up. "Why didn't you tell us about the RA Plan?"

The light from the window reflected off Yata's glasses as he looked over them to see Haseo better. _'So __that's__ what's in the data.'_

"What's the RA Plan?" Bo asked; Pi began trying to avoid eye contact.

"In short," Haseo answered. "It's the reason we Epitaph Users and Project GU exist. It was CC Corp.'s attempt to revive Aura after she disappeared in 2015 by attaching Morganna's Wave to PCs. I don't know what happened to me, but somehow I was told everything that has happened in The World since 2010, since... Since six months before Morganna ordered Skeith to attack me causing me to fall into a coma, my mind encased in his staff."

Pi gasped, she stepped back and quickly ran out of the sanctuary. Yata noticed it, but paid little attention to it.

"Who told you this?" Yata demanded.

"I... don't remember."

"It..." Atoli spoke up, pulling back from Haseo. "It was our Avatars."

"Avatars? Plural?" Kuhn exclaimed. "You mean all _eight_ of them? How would that even be possible?"

"I don't know how it happened, but Innis just told me that's what happened. It was really weird, she looked just like me... I-I mean 'Atoli', but with her colors mixed up. She looked worried."

Yata spoke up, "It may be possible because he has absorbed the rest of us giving him a connection to all eight Avatars. But why would they choose _now_ of all times to give him this information?"

'_It wouldn't have anything to do with what happened yesterday, would it...?' _Atoli looked worriedly up at Haseo. He continued to stare at her blankly but then grasped his head in a silent scream and ran out of the cathedral, pushing aside Kuhn and Endrance along the way.

"Go after him before he hurts himself!" Yata turned to Kuhn and Endrance. They followed Haseo out the door.

"I don't understand...!" Atoli exclaimed. "Couldn't he just log out while you work with his PC? Why does he have to go through this?"

"Right now his mind and PC are in flux. I doubt if he _can_ log out."

Outside on the bridge, Kuhn and Endrance caught up with Haseo. He was staggering a few feet away from the Platform, holding his head and screaming.

"I'll try and keep his attention; you sneak on the other side to keep him from escaping." Kuhn commanded. Endrance nodded and slipped over to stand between Haseo and the Platform. "Haseo." He called to him quietly. "We don't know what happened to you yet, but Yata's going to work to get it all sorted out, okay? So just calm down."

Haseo pulled out one of his dual guns; Kuhn backed away as the safety was unlocked. "Haseo! Let's just-" He shut his eyes at the sound of a gunshot, and slowly opened them up again to find that Haseo had shot himself in the foot and was panting.

"Wh-what... Why did you do that?"

"Head... splitting, headache... can't. Log out..."

"Pain displacement?"

"Yes... My foot... hurts like hell... but... at least... I won't... pass out..."

"Haseo-san!" Atoli ran up with Shino and Bo in tow. Haseo shifted to look at her, with great difficulty he dragged himself over to her. Kuhn reached out to help him, but he refused. He stood unstably for a moment, then he fell backwards in a faint; his face red with fever. Kuhn rushed over to catch him before he fell to the ground.

"Haseo!" Kuhn cried out.

"Is he out?" Atoli asked.

"But our Factors wouldn't allow him to, would it?"

"Ugh! Don't I wish! Just too painful... to stand. Ugh!" Haseo rolled over on his stomach and began gagging. "Can we throw up?"

"Why?" Kuhn asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" he coughed. "I'm so nauseous..."

"An overworked brain," Yata walked out of the cathedral. "He is showing signs of the sickness."

"What should we do?" Kuhn turned to Yata.

"He should rest. I'll take him with me to Tartarga's bridge and set him up to lie down there." Yata and Haseo warped out.

"What should we do?" Atoli repeated the question.

"I don't know," Kuhn answered. "Haseo's usually so strong; it's weird seeing him in a weakened condition like this."

Shino shifted her weight, "I think sometimes we forget he's still a normal person."

XXX

"You know what's interesting?" Haseo asked. He was lying on his back on the bridge in front the window with his head turned to the side to watch the view of Mac Anu in the distance while blue graphics flashed around him. Yata had begun the tests. "There were over 130 cases of coma victims over the past eight years, and there have only been eight cases involving long-term amnesia; Tsukasa, myself, Too Cocky's player, and his five classmates. And Tsukasa's the only one who was not ten years old at the time of the incident. Or male."

Pi blinked, she had been found pacing on the bridge and couldn't say "no" to Yata's command to assist him. "That phrasing makes it sound like the lady who played Tsukasa _is_ now male... She isn't, is she?"

"No," Yata replied unwaveringly.

"I really have a hard time believing that bastard is really only ten years old, Too Cocky, not Tsukasa... Well, I guess he'd be eleven by now. I took that part of Online Jack's investigation on Doll Syndrome with a grain of salt at the time, but the Avatars confirmed to me that he really is only ten years old. I guess AIDA would have had something to do with his foul attitude, and Ovan did supposedly give him a script to work with to piss me off as part of his roundabout covert plan to get me to fight and absorb Innis, but still, the kid must have some severe psychological issues to begin with!

"I can't stand that show anymore, Online Jack, I guess when the main host spends six hours stalking you it does change your perspective on things, but..."

"Huh? When did that happen?" Pi paused in her work for a moment and turned to Yata.

"Not long after the AIDA server incident at Moon Tree, Aihara Salvador somehow obtained Haseo's offline information and tried getting an interview to get his show back on top after it was briefly cancelled. The next day after it happened, I found Haseo sitting out in Raven's main AtHome, which I found to be unusual to begin with, grumbling about something. He told me the story and I spoke with the authorities. They made the incident disappear. However, since Haseo's player evidently has not watched that show since the incident, he does not know that his interview was only allowed to be streamed in an audio format."

"It _was _streamed?"

"They had already advertised the fact that they had an exclusive interview with the player of Haseo, and it already had quite a following. The representatives of CC Corp. could not stand the idea of turning down any form of positive publicity. But since they did not get his consent, they could not legally reveal his name or show his face. After it was discovered that the special was only in audio its popularity dropped vastly."

"Oh."

Meanwhile, Haseo had been continuing with his ramblings in the background, "I wonder how Chigusa-san would react if she found out that the man she looked up to for so long is six years younger than her? I probably shouldn't tell her that, I'd get in a lot of trouble with her... Hey, I just realized something about mine, Atoli's and Too Cocky's relationship. Yata, well actually a genius brat like you probably doesn't care much for European fairy tales... Pi! Have you ever heard the story of _Beauty and the Beast_?"

"Genius _brat_?" Yata's temple pulsed. "And I _do_ know that story. For the record, the love triangle you are referring to was only featured in two film adaptations."

"And several novelizations, at least the ones I had to read in fourth grade. But not the one my grandmother had a first edition of. I think it's Villeneuve's..."

Pi raised her brow, "As long as you're making the allusion that you're the beast, I'll believe anything."

"Heh," Haseo grinned. "You're right. But in that respect, that also makes the allusion that I'm a _prince_, you realize that?"

"Well, an Epitaph PC _is_ like a god, that's higher than 'prince', and your father is Misaki Keiji, President of one of the top programming companies of Japan, so it makes sense."

"How do you...? Never mind, I forgot that I was missing for five hours putting Atoli on the verge of a nervous breakdown that she felt the need to self-treat by telling everyone about yesterday. Not to mention your boss, The World's Super Stalker."

"Actually, I was the one who told Yata-sama that you were his son. He was only able to dig up that your father was _a_ company president."

"Well how did you know?"

"To be honest, just before I was hired by CC Corp. to continue the work my brother did, I was in the middle of an interview process to get a job at your family's company."

"Okay, but since when does taking a job at a company involve researching the president's family tree?"

"Never. But on two separate occasions during my interview process, a woman walked up to me and introduced herself as Keiji-sama's wife, which I assume to be your mother. On both occasions she then proceeded to tell me that I was a pretty, young woman and asked if I would be interested in marrying her sixteen year old son."

"Gawd! She's relentless! What did you tell her?"

"That I was twenty-three and had no interest in marrying a minor I had never met based solely on his name and age told to me by his mother."

"Good! Nothing personal, but good! You do not want to know how many girls she's asked that! Now where was I?"

"_Beauty and the Beast_."

"Ah yes."

"Can you just be quiet already? Pi! Quit encouraging him!" Yata's nerves began pulsing. "Your constant rambling is making it difficult for me to get any discernable results!"

"I'm sorry Yata-sama, but I could not resist the urge to get information out of him on his thoughts and feelings while his guard is down."

"I think you are spending too much time with Kasumi-san."

Pi shuddered at the thought and she and Yata turned back to Haseo, "So when it boils down, Too Cocky was _jealous _of me because of the attention Atoli was giving me! And of course a seventeen-year-old boy would draw more attention from a sixteen-year-old girl than a ten-year-old boy, regardless of the fact that he made himself to look like a twenty-one year-old man. Not to mention that in modern times the leather-clad bad boy has more appeal to the average teenage girl than the noble samurai man."

Haseo paused, he finally realized that Yata had been speaking to him, "You said something to me didn't you?"

"Yes. I asked you to be quiet."

"I can't help it! You'd be pretty talkative too if you suddenly had nine years worth of information _crammed _into your head! In minute detail I might add! Wanna hear the story of Endrance's player's tragic love affair with Mia, the cat-like AI that harbored the Macha Factor? I thought _my _story was ironic!"

"No! I got enough of it seven years ago! Now be quiet!"

"Now I know why he was so obsessed with that AIDA on his shoulder when we first met him, he was hopin' to be gettin' _busy_ with it. So he's not really gay, he's just extremely needy and clingy and my telling him I _needed_ him, tripped something in his head... so maybe that just means he's gay _now_."

"Quiet..."

"So do you always play old men? Oh, wait. I'm forgetting about Naobi... So were you the reason why Tawaraya always seemed to be riding my ass to join TaN?"

"If I say 'yes' _then_ will you be quiet? And this character is not exactly an 'old man'..."

"I wonder why Pi is so worried about my learning she played Ender, and all the things her brother did. Well, given my history I suppose she does have reason to believe I would get mad at her, but it's the fact that she's actually concerned about it that surprises me."

"...Did he forget I'm in here? He's been like that all day; forgetful, erratic, _polite_. Even before this incident. "

"Did you know that you and Kuhn are the only Epitaph Users _not_ to become infected by AIDA? Well, I guess _I_ don't really count; I pushed it out my mind before it could take over. But still, none ever even _tried_ with the two of you. Kuhn was attacked when was awakened, though, but it didn't infect him. And you, you just got jealous that Ovan's PC found harmony with both AIDA and a Morganna Factor and went _nuts_. Holy crap, I just realized that every time I lost it in the Arena, it was Atoli's voice that drew me back to sanity... Better not let Kuhn know that..."

"Now _I_ wish we could be knocked unconscious..." Yata rubbed his forehead.

"Will these help?" Pi held up a sock and a length of rope.

Yata sweat-dropped, "Might. But you know standing there like that with those items does not really help the S&M image regular players have of you..."

She sweat-dropped also, "Tell me about it. The only reason I have these is because one of my fanboys handed them to me and asked me to tie him up. I scoffed at him and walked away. In retrospect, I think that was actually worse than my initial thought to tie him up with them and _then_ walk away."

"Yes. To his fetish-infested mind, you implied to him that the items were useful to you, but not with him."

"Don't blame me! I didn't create this character! My brother did!"

"You did report him didn't you? Those items are not within the game specs."

"Yes. Of course I did." She turned to Haseo, who had stopped talking. "I think he actually shut up on his own."

"Go over and make sure he is not barely conscious again."

"I'm still awake," Haseo answered hoarsely. "Just winded; I can't talk anymore... But I still can't stop all this information from trying to spill out."

"Then just rest and let me run the tests. I will be able to help you with the problem once I know more about it."

A couple hours later, Haseo and Yata had not moved much from their positions, but Pi had left. Haseo turned his head to look at Yata. "Are you almost done? My headache hasn't gone away you know and these flashing graphics aren't helping."

"You could always just shut your eyes. But I am almost finished, and then I will have to write up a program to separate the data in your physical mind. It will act as a dam, you will still have access to the information, but it will be more controlled so it will not harm you. Once I insert the program, your symptoms should subside and you will be able to log out."

"Okay." Haseo turned his head back to face the scenery again and closed his eyes.

Atoli warped in, "How are things coming along?"

"Pretty quickly now that he has quieted down."

"Huh?"

"When we first arrived, he screamed for about five minutes then proceeded for fifteen minutes to tell me all about any of the information that came to his mind, I tried quieting him, but every time I said something to him, he just changed subjects. I am just wrapping up if you want to go talk to him."

She walked over to Haseo and knelt down next him, "How are you doing?"

"Well, I feel like absolute _crap_, and I have a lot of conflicting emotions right now, but... That's a lot better than when all this started..."

"I'm sorry; I should have noticed you were having so much trouble."

"Don't be. You had no way of knowing what was happening. ..._I_ didn't even know until it was too late."

"Still, I must not have made things any easier on you."

The lights surrounding Haseo disappeared, "I think I will give the two of you some privacy while I write up this program." Yata said.

Remembering her dream last night, Atoli blushed and started to jump up and leave, but Haseo grabbed onto her wrist without looking at her. Her face flushed more, but she didn't resist as he turned to her. "I want to talk to you."

"A-about what…?" she sweat-dropped.

"You know what. The same thing that made you jump up just now and the reason you've been avoiding me all day."

"Hahh..."

"Are you... mad at me for what happened yesterday?"

"Huh? N-no! Not at all!"

"Then tell me what's wrong...!"

"Umm..."

"C'mon, I'm sure you'll feel better once you say something to me."

"I... I kind of had a weird dream last night and I was afraid you'd get mad at me if you found out about it."

He snickered, "What was it about?" She turned even redder, leaned down and whispered in his ear. He turned red and chucked nervously. He winced lightly; the motion seemed to cause him a little bit of pain. "You thought I'd get mad at you for _that_? _Maybe _if you told someone _else_, but telling _me_... Wait. Was that what you told Tabby not to tell me?"

"I'm sorry! But I had to tell _someone_ and I was afraid you'd get mad. She even tried to comfort me by saying you might have had a similar dream."

He grinned, "Heh. I'd have to sleep first before I have _any_ kind of dream… I think the two hours while Yata ran the tests on me was the most rest I had gotten in three days!"

"Three _days_?"

He blushed, "I... was really nervous about meeting you, and then after I did, I wasn't able to think of anything else..."

"Huh?"

"Mmm... Nevermind... But I guess that's okay, she kept her promise not to tell _that _to anyone, so..." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "But I want you to know that you can come to me about anything, I won't bite, anymore."

"You mean you're not mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you for subconscious images you saw while sleeping? No matter how... _colorful_ they are." She still looked worried; he turned to her with a grin. "Hey. Look on the bright side. At least _you _were the one that was naked."

"Ahhh!" She clasped her hands over her ears. "Don't say it so plainly like that!" He snickered and winced again; she pulled her hands away and thought about what he said. "...I guess that's true. But, why would _you_ say something like _that_?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh... I guess I'm just not used to you taking things so calmly and-"

"I'm sorry for making you feel that way. I was just so stupid and blind when we met."

"Don't blame yourself; you were just worried about Shino." She turned to him and pressed her pointer finger against his chest. "You're just a really caring person, Ryou-san."

His eyes widened for a second as his face turned pink, " And in any case, if I did get mad at you I'd be sort of a hypocrite because I kind of let some things leak to the tabloids."

"Wh-what do you mean, the tabloids?"

"Ever heard of the guild, The World Enquirer?"

"Oh. That one really big guild that's always trying to get a 'scoop' on what we're doing?"

"Yeah. Well, I learned this morning that its Guild Master is a girl in my class. Who knows I play this character."

"So, how exactly did you end up telling this girl about yesterday?"

He looked away. "...Atoli, I want you to understand that it is normal for a guy to talk to other guys about girls, just like girls talk about boys."

"What are you getting at?"

"Okay, so this morning I was talking to a couple of my friends about our weekends, and well, of course the... offline meeting came up for me, and hence you. I said that that I'd met a girl I knew on a net game offline and I didn't know this girl, she plays 3ndora, happened to walk by and immediately figured out what I was talking about and started playing 20 questions with me."

_'He's still calling it a meeting? Even after he kissed me? Maybe he just feels awkward actually calling it a "date" just like I do...'_

"There's gonna be an exposé on our da... offline meeting in this week's issue?"

"No. Fortunately I was able to distract her with something a little more tempting."

"What?"

"An exclusive interview with me."

"How's that better? You know she's just going to ask you questions about yesterday as a part of the interview...!"

He shook his head, "I told her to keep it strictly about me, nothing about our relationship, or there was no deal."

She blushed, "You shouldn't take on so much on your own, that's what got you in this position."

"But you don't need the heartache. Only one of us needs to be on this bed of needles."

"I think I should have a say in that decision! And I say you shouldn't overwork yourself! ...Are you ashamed of me?"

"What? No! Of course not! I just don't want you to have to live in the limelight like I do!" He coughed violently, then let himself flop back down panting heavily.

"Haseo-san..."

"You know, you don't have to address me so distantly when we're alone."

She blushed, "Haseo...kun?"

He turned to her, brushing his hand against her cheek, "You can just call me Ryou when we're alone. Can I call you Chigusa?"

"I-I don't know..." her eyes spun. "Don't you think we're moving a bit fast here?"

"I'm just asking your permission for us to drop the formalities when we talk to each other when no one else is around, it's not like I asked you to move in or _sleep_ with me or anything..."

"S-s-s-sl-sleep with you?" She turned bright red and jumped up. She began to pace frantically while fidgeting with her hands.

"Augh! Bad example! Bad! Bad!" He coughed for several seconds, he had talked too loudly. "...Atoli. Please get back over here, I can't talk any louder than this and if sit up, I'll throw up. Again."

"You did throw up?" She sat back down next to him.

"I think so..."

"Oh you poor thing...!" She threw herself over him, resting her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around him. When she started to pull back up, he wrapped his arms around her to keep her in that position. Her breath cut short and her cheeks slowly turned pink. "A-are you going to be okay with me over you like this?"

He tried to hide that he was in a little pain, "Mgh... If you don't move and talk quietly, I should be fine."

"Okay... Ryou."

"The program is just about done," Yata warped in. "I wanted to test it on you before I... Was I interrupting something?"

Atoli turned red and jumped to her feet, "N-nothing!" Both of them said; Haseo cleared his throat, trying to hide his burning cheeks.

"You wanted to test the program? Shoot."

Yata pulled up a luminescent keyboard and tapped on it, Atoli blushed as she watched Haseo out the corner of her eye.

"That should do it."

Haseo held his hands up over his head so he could look at them. "How do I tell if it's working?"

"How are your symptoms?"

"I still feel like crap, but I _am _starting to feel less nauseous..."

"Try logging out," Yata suggested. Haseo paused, seconds later blue rings rose up around him but then stopped. "Hmmm. It may take a while to take full effect. You should just rest for now, and try logging out again every fifteen minutes or so. If you are still stuck here in an hour, come back to see me."

"O-okay..." Haseo panted as he stood shakily. "Yata, please teleport Atoli and me to Indieglut Lugh."

"I should really continue to monitor your progress, but I suppose I could always..."

"No," Haseo coughed. "No spy-camming us!"

"I was going to say I could pull up a read out of your vitals..."

"Noooo... I want pri-va-cy."

"I do not understand what you are trying to hide. I do not need a medical readout to tell me that if you are alone in a dark room with Atoli that your heart rate is going to increase."

Haseo glared for a moment and staggered a little.

"Very well." Yata transported the teens as Haseo had requested.

"Why did you want to come out here?" Atoli asked.

"I wanted to get to a place where it's dark so I could rest my eyes and maybe lose this headache." He grinned. "And I heard this was a favorite place of yours. I figured we could talk some more while I wait to be able to log out."

"Wh-what do you want to talk about?"

He coughed again as he sat down by the water, "Well, let me start off by saying that you are under no circumstances to mention..." He coughed again. "Sorry... You are under no circumstances to mention this to my parents."

"Why?" She sat down next to him. "And please keep your answer short, I don't want you to strain yourself."

"Because I spent twenty minutes yesterday trying to convince my mother that I wouldn't fall into a coma again."

"What? Again?"

"You see, eight years ago, just before the Second Network Crisis, I used to play The World as a character named Sora..." She listened intently while he told her the whole story; after he finished, her eyes were wide.

"You used to play as a PKer? _And_ you became a Lost One?"

"Now don't go blabbing _that_ around! Can you _imagine_ how much _ass_ I'm gonna get from PKers if they ever find out I used to be _one_ of them?"

She put up an innocent act, "Me? Gossip? Never...!"

He laughed and rubbed her head, tilting her hat and mussing her hair. "Right, I'll believe that. Remind me again, _who_ told Tabby that I kissed you yesterday?"

She blushed, fixing her hat and hair, "I won't tell anyone about that though! You can trust me!"

"I do trust you..." He pulled in and kissed her on the cheek. "Mmm... Has it been about fifteen minutes?"

She breathed out heavily a few times before answering, "Uh! Just about, oh... It's been over twenty minutes."

"Mmm..." He pulled back. "I'm going to try logging out now. If I succeed, don't expect to see me back on the rest of the night. I'm exhausted..." He closed his eyes, the blue rings surrounded him and he logged out.


End file.
